U.S. Cruel to Dolphins, Libya Charges

Libya condemned the United States on Saturday for sending dolphins to hunt for mines in the Persian Gulf, accusing Washington of cruelty that could lead to annihilation of the intelligent mammals.

“America has reached the climax of brutality and savagery by using this tame animal . . . in missions leading to certain death,” the official Libyan news agency Jana said.

The U.S. Defense Department reported Friday that five trained dolphins had been sent to the gulf to help find underwater mines.

“After doing its utmost to kill children, old men and women everywhere in the world, after burning forests and fields of rice and corn, America has now turned toward the annihilation of . . . animals like dolphins and seals,” Jana said.

The agency, monitored in Beirut, called on societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals to organize protest campaigns against the “dolphin annihilation by American imperialism.”

The new deployment of dolphins was the first reported by the Pentagon since they were used during the Vietnam War.