Whales and dolphins: even cleverer than we thought

There have been some fascinating wildlife docus on recently covering the lives of whales and dolphins, and it seems that the more we learn about them, the more sophisticated creatures they turn out to be.
In Dolphins: spy in the pod, we have seen how they work in groups and generally look after each others interests in a disturbingly human way. We even saw a young dolphin, seeking a life on his own away from the pod, show distinct signs of loneliness and seeking, and indeed receiving comfort from a dolphin of a completely different species- a behaviour never before reported in the wild.

In a recent programme on whales, we saw how one whale, his spine damaged following a collision with a boat and unable to feed for itself, was cared for by the rest of the school, who sheltered him from predation from other whales and even fed him. This sort of display of compassion amongst dumb creatures shows yet again how marvellously sophisticated and noble they are. Nurturing the weak and defenceless in our community is not only a human characteristic, it is one of our most evolved traits.

Not that this was a consideration for the owners of a "Sea World" type facility in San Diego recently. They had two whales in captivity, mother and child in the same huge tank. Then they decided to transfer the young whale to another facility in Florida. Separated, both whales showed signs of stress, losing weight and refusing to co-operate with their human handlers. Most heartbreaking of all, the mother began to emit deep, penetrating sounds the humans had never heard her make before, and eventually realised she was using special sounds designed to cover the greatest distance under water to communicate with her child. These sounds can carry across hundreds of miles in open water, but they cannot cross a continent of land.

To me such treatment is tantamount to the most severe form of animal abuse and should be banned. Come to think of it, the trapping of these animals for the entertainment of human beings is an obscene practice in itself and should, like bear baiting, be made a thing of the past. To put them in a tank, however large, is like subjecting a human to solitary confinement in a an 9 foot by five punishment cell- for life. That's what I call cruel and unusual punishment. And they haven't even done anything to be punished for!