Dolphin billboards pulled two days after launch
News
Earlier this week we unveiled the latest phase of our Wildlife. Not Entertainers campaign. The billboards in multiple Gold Coast locations educated passers-by on the suffering of captive dolphins.
Disappointingly, the billboards were taken down after only two days. But this will not deter us from our work to ensure an end to captive breeding.
Head of Campaigns at World Animal Protection, Ben Pearson said:
"We understand from media reports that JCDecaux was approached by Village Roadshow to complain about our captive dolphin education advertising and the billboards were therefore taken down. “
"The billboards did not mention Sea World. It’s a disappointing day for free speech when an animal welfare group is prevented from expressing an opinion about dolphins in captivity."
The tide has turned against captive dolphin entertainment
In their natural environment, dolphins swim freely in a 100 square kilometres of ocean, sometimes more, but the average dolphin in captivity has a space a fraction of that size!
Up to 50 years in captivity is no life at all for intelligent, social dolphins. Major travel brands like TripAdvisor, Virgin Holidays, British Airways Holidays and Booking.com have already committed to stop selling tickets to captive dolphin shows and encounters.
As well as changes from the travel industry, earlier this year, Canada passed a ban on keeping dolphins, whales and porpoises for entertainment.
This is part of a global movement towards better treatment of these wild animals, which includes the nations of Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, India, Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK.
Earlier this year, more than 22,000 people from Australia and New Zealand signed our petition calling on the Queensland Government to ban captive breeding in Queensland and begin work on a sea sanctuary for the dolphins who cannot be released into the wild.
Everything we’ve achieved to end cruelty of wild animals kept in tourism has been made possible by people like you.
Together, we can make this the last generation of dolphins kept captive to entertain tourists.
Major travel brands like TripAdvisor, Virgin Holidays, British Airways Holidays and Booking.com have already committed to stop selling tickets to dolphin shows and encounters