Captivity

The worldwide captivity industry threatens wild whale and dolphin populations and inflicts cruelty and suffering on thousands of individual animals.

Whales and dolphins continue to be captured from the wild in traumatic and sometimes lethal hunts for public display in aquaria, marine parks and even hotel swimming pools. 

Confined in an unnatural environment, these wide-ranging, social animals are forced to live a life of severe deprivation, suffering lower life-expectancy and higher infant mortality than in the wild.

WDCS is working for a world where whales and dolphins are no longer subjected to this cruelty.   We campaign for tougher regulations to protect whales and dolphins from capture and trade and raise awareness of the impacts of captivity around the world.

To find out more please read our reports on captivity issues (available in PDF format).

Dolphin Assisted Therapy: Can you put your faith in DAT? (2007)
Driven by Demand (2006)
Captive Cetaceans: A Handbook for Campaigners (1998)
Free Corky Campaign Factsheet (2006)
Captive Orcas - ‘Dying to Entertain You’ (2001)

Help WDCS Stop Plans To Display Amazon River Dolphins In Norway WDCS and the Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance (NAPA) have started a campaign to stop plans for a new rainforest-aquarium in Kristiansand, Norway. The aquarium, which is slated to open in 2010, plans to display endangered Amazon River dolphins. 2008-July-22

Threat From Solomon Island Dolphin Captures Continues WDCS is very concerned at the continuation of captures and international export of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in the Solomon Islands. 2008-April-14

Dolphins Exploited For Military Purposes It sounds like bad science fiction, but the US military is using dolphins to detect mines in war zones and intruders to naval bases 2008-March-24

Petting Pools - Biting The Hand That Feeds Biting the Hand that Feeds: The Case Against Dolphin Petting Pools WDCS exposes the cruelty of the increasingly popular dolphin “petting pools.” 2008-March-23

Bottlenose Dolphins In Captivity We all love dolphins, and the captivity industry has capitalised on this to make huge profits at the expense of the animals misery 2008-March-22

Orcas In Captivity WDCS believes that Orcas are unsuitable for keeping in captivity. These remarkable creatures are imprisoned for profit and they are 'dying to entertain us' 2008-March-15

Live Captures In its search for live dolphins, the aquarium industry is helping to fund brutal hunts in Japan, known as ‘drive hunts’. 2008-February-20

Dolphin Assisted Therapy WDCS is calling for a total ban on Dolphin Assisted Therapy (DAT) because of the harm it can cause to both the people and animals involved. 2008-February-20

Solitary dolphins WDCS believes that the increase in the desire for and availability of ‘swim-with the dolphin’ programs is having an adverse effect on wild dolphins.  We are concerned that there is a growing belief that all dolphins, even those in the wild, want to tow people around by their dorsal fin. However, this is not the case, these wild dolphins (and occasionally whales) go through stages of habituation towards people, some taking years before they will allow themselves to be touched.  Sadly, research and evidence shows that the more human contact they receive the more vulnerable they become to injury and even death. For more information please go to our 'Solitary dolphins' pages. 2008-April-17