DOLPHINS KEPT IN21 TINY HOTEL POOL
A BRITISH charity is fighting to rescue dolphins being kept in a small hotel swimming pool.
Marine experts say the animals – offered as a dubious form of therapy to supposedly cure sick children – are suffering.
The Best Western chain revealed yesterday the under-fire hotel in Armenia has now ended its links to the dolphin therapy centre.
Bosses at the Best Western Paradise Hotel in the town of Dilijan also insist the facility is in a separate building and is owned and run by a third party.
Animal charity Marine Connection is appalled by the plight of the two dolphins. Director Margaux Dodds said: “A swimming pool built for humans is no place for them. There is no benefit to children or others derived from swimming with them.
“Captive dolphins live shorter and sadder lives. We will do everything in our power to free them.”
Operators of the dolphin centre claim kids suffering from a range of illnesses benefit from swimming with the bottlenose dolphins in their underground prison, measuring roughly 65ft by 30ft.
But the therapy has been widely discredited. Lori Marino, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta, in the US state of Georgia, said: “Dolphins are not healers but smart sociable predators and they shouldn’t be used to ‘cure’ the ill.”
Furious guests had begged the hotel to free the dolphins.
The Best Western chain, based in the US, said it is “opposed to the inhumane treatment of animals”, adding the hotel is independently owned and operated.
Best Western said it was told by the hotel the dolphin centre “has an altruistic purpose .... [but] recognising there can be a difference of opinions... the hotel has advised... it has severed its relationship with the dolphin assisted therapy facility”.
The Mirror told last month how bears were being caged in Armenia to entertain diners at a restaurant. British charity International Animal Rescue led the operation that freed the animals and took them to a sanctuary.