Dolphin Shows Dropped for Being Costly, Unfair

Great America amusement park is dropping its dolphin show, saying that the performance is costly and unfair to the intelligent marine mammals.

“In this day and age we know more about dolphins than we did when the park opened 17 years ago,” Great America spokeswoman Lise Shannon said.

“The whole idea of having one of the smartest creatures on Earth in captivity is not the best thing to do, and it is perceived by the public as not the best thing to do,” she said.

The dolphins, Katie and Leana, will not perform when the park, which is closed for the winter, reopens in March. The future of the animals, owned by a Mississippi concern that operates similar shows throughout the country, has not been decided.

Environmentalists and animal rights advocates praised the park’s decision to cancel the dolphin show.

“The public is becoming more aware of the fact that dolphins belong in their native habitat, the ocean, and not in these concrete prisons,” said Mark Berman of the Earth Island Institute in San Francisco.

But activists criticized the park’s plan to replace the dolphins’ performance with a show featuring trained cockatoos, cockatiels, macaws and raptors.

Suzanne Roy, a member of In Defense of Animals in Marin County, said the international trade in exotic birds is very cruel.

“People see cockatoos and don’t realize they belong in trees. Many are endangered species and they are shipped in crates. About 70% die in the process,” she said.