Dolphin Shows Come to a Close at Knott’s Berry Farm

To the delight of animal rights activists, Knott’s Berry Farm has quietly closed its dolphin shows, a daily feature at the theme park since 1987.

“This is great news for us,” said Eva Park, a spokeswoman for Orange County People for Animals, which began boycotting the theme park in 1991 and has staged numerous demonstrations there protesting what it described as the inhumane treatment of animals. One demonstration, in 1995, resulted in the arrests of five activists who chained themselves to the dolphin tank.

“This ends our seven-year boycott of Knott’s Berry Farm,” Park said this week. “Now we encourage all of our members to go and have a happy experience there.”

A Knott’s spokeswoman said the shows, which featured two dolphins, were discontinued last month as part of a three-year renovation plan.

“It’s typical for us to rotate and change educational programs,” said Dana Hammontree at the park’s Buena Park headquarters. “The dolphins had been here for more than 11 years, and we are truly lacking in space. We felt that it was time to look at some different alternatives.”

The dolphin pool, in an area of the park called Pacific Pavilion, will be demolished to make way for attractions scheduled to open next summer, Hammontree said.

Both of the dolphins from Knott’s have been returned to the company in Gulfport, Miss., from which they were leased, she said.

Ongoing protests by the animal rights group were not a factor in the park’s decision, according to Hammontree.

“The park continues to fully support marine mammal programs and the use of wild animals for education,” she said. “Children learn by seeing. Rather than read about the lifestyles and habits of animals, they can actually see and experience them and, through that, grow a deeper fondness for those animals.”

Park and her group saw the shows differently, however, describing them as cruel. “If you understood the way dolphins are captured, trained and transported,” she said, “you would understand why we were opposed.”

Specifically, she said, the animals at Knott’s Berry Farm were kept in a tank that was too small and in water that was too chlorinated; not provided any shelter from the sun; and subjected to the unremitting noise and vibration of a nearby roller coaster.

“We were very opposed to the conditions at Knott’s,” Park said, “but unfortunately, there aren’t any good conditions anywhere. These are intelligent creatures, and it is simply wrong to take them out of their natural environment and force them to perform unnatural tricks [in exchange] for dead fish.”

Hammontree said the end of the dolphin show will not affect other programs the park offers involving horses, pigs, goats, birds and snakes.