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Tell Egypt to End Marine Mammal Captivity
  1. Signatures
    686 out of 1,000
    Petitioning
    1. Egyptian Minister of State for Environmental Affairs (Eng. Maged George Elias Ghattas)
  2. Created By
    Michelle Hodkin
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

In September, news broke that four bottlenose dolphins were being kept in a pool in a private villa in Hurghada.

A pool. 

The dolphins, who easily measure nine feet in length, have been living in a pool thirty feet wide and about thirteen feet deep. 

The condition of the water is reported to be so far beyond substandard as to be dangerous — the dolphins have evidenced eye damage because of it. And if you were wondering where these lucky animals were captured from, you win if you guessed Taiji, where the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove was filmed. 

They are tagged for eventual transfer to the Sharm El Sheik dolphinarium once the 105 day quarantine period passes. If, of course, the dolphins survive that long. 

And soon, four future captives of the cruel and profitable Taiji roundups are slated for shipment to Egypt, to rot in tanks at the new Makadi Bay, Hurghada dolphinarium.  Presumably to educate future generations about how cruelly our species behaves towards animals we profess to want to protect. Because what other purpose could capturing wild animals and forcing them to live in tiny, cement, chlorinated fish bowls serve?

It’s sick, it’s sad, it educates no one and hurts many. So tell the Egyptian government that you want this cruelty to stop. 

Photo credit: LaPrimaDonna

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Please Help End Marine Mammal Captivity in Egypt

Greetings,

Dear Minister Ghattas:

Recently, your country, and your department in particular, has garnered international attention. But not for the work you do in preserving your nation’s environmental treasures. Egypt is in the spotlight because four dolphins have been imported from Taiji, Japan, where an annual, brutal roundup of the wild creatures occurs, and those animals were shipped to your country, where they have been living in a pool that measures 9 meters wide and only four meters deep. Dolphins are approximately 3 meters in length.

Your country is in the spotlight for perpetuating animal cruelty.

You might argue that the dolphins are only being held in this pool (with substandard water that has been causing eye damage) temporarily, for the duration of the 105 day quarantine period. You might argue that all will be well once they are transferred to their ultimate destinations: the Sharm El Sheik dolphinarium and a new facility at Makadi Bay, south of Hurghada.

But you would be wrong.

Dolphins do not belong in captivity anywhere. They are extremely intelligent, social creatures, designed to trek hundreds of miles in the ocean, their natural habitat, not to circle and perform tricks in chlorinated, concrete pools. Their capture, transportation, and permanent confinement harms them egregiously and provides no educational value to park-goers.

We, the international community at Change.org, urge you to demonstrate to the world that Egypt is not a country that supports and perpetuates animal cruelty. We ask that you use your considerable influence to effectuate the return of the four captive dolphins in the private pool in Hurghada to the ocean immediately, to prevent the opening of a new dolphinarium in Makadi Bay (south of Hurghada), to refuse to grant additional permits for the establishment of dolphinaria in Egypt’s borders, and to revoke the permits already granted, and to lobby for legislation to prohibit the captivity of dolphins and other marine mammals in Egypt.

We thank you. And if the dolphins could speak, they would, too.

[Your name]

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