By: Andrew Uyeno
Animals live better when they are not stuck in cages, who knew? Wait, we all did. For some reason the people who “care” for animals are finally realising maybe sticking creatures into cages wasn’t the greatest idea. John Racanelli, chief executive officer for the National Aquarium in Baltimore, wrote in the Baltimore Sun that “emerging science and consultation with experts have convinced us that dolphins do indeed thrive when they can form social groups, have opportunities to express natural behaviors and live in a habitat as similar as possible to that for which nature so superbly designed them.”
Wait, they needed experts to tell them this? Who knew that animals do so much better in their natural habitat than in a manmade zoo? Either we are that ignorant, or more likely, we started to buy into our own propaganda that zoos are for the protection of the animals and not for the profit. Well with this life changing news the National Aquarium of Baltimore is creating the first dolphin sanctuary in North America. The Aquarium is now looking for a perfect place to give their eight bottlenose dolphins a new home that feels a lot less like an animal jail.
This new sanctuary will be giving the dolphins real seawater to swim in, the closest thing to actually living in the wild as they can make it. Now, this is a great step in protecting the amazing wildlife that also live on this incredible planet. But this is something that should have happened years ago. Instead people were too concentrated on making a profit. They were more worried about making a “home” that made it easy to showcase the animals rather than actually give them a comfortable place to grow and live. This is a big step forward in animal protection. Now we just need to see more of these sanctuaries for all different kinds of animals. The question still remains: why did it take this long? Either way, we need to keep encouraging projects like this and hope this is a first in a long line of new animal sanctuaries.
