Banning captive whale and dolphin breeding is cruel… says captivity park director

A marine park holding whales and dolphins in France has pledged to fight the recently introduced ban  on breeding orcas and dolphins in captivity.

French authorities announced an end to captive breeding just days ago, which represents a major blow for the captivity industry in the country and a major victory for WDC’s anti-captivity campaign.

Bizarrely, Jon Kershaw, Wildlife Director at Marineland in southern France has called the ban cruel. He said it could hurt the animals held captive. ” I am sure that this will have an effect on the animals’ life expectancy. It’s not normal, it’s not logical to establish on the one hand a decree made for protecting animals, and on the other hand harming them like that. I don’t understand,” he said.

In reality, captive whales and dolphins live shorter lives than they do in the wild. This is significant given the fact that they are kept in an environment that is free of predators, pollution and other threats that they face in the wild. Wild dolphins can swim up to 100 miles a day but in captivity they have very little space in which to move around and so display unnatural behaviour. The captive environment can never replace their natural one.

Read more about the cruelty of captivity, how WDC is fighting to end it and donate now.