Flipper killed himself

Richard O'Barry was the dolphin trainer for "Flipper".In 2009 he created the movie The Cove, says his attitude towards dolphins changed when one of the "Flipper" dolphins killed himself. After that - he tried to free as many as possible. First thing he did was to free some dolphins and got arrested.

en.wikipedia.org...

When one of the five Flippers, a female Bottlenose Dolphin named Kathy died, O'Barry could no longer deny what he saw as the severity and potentially fatal consequences of the captivity industry he had helped to establish. O'Barry maintains that Kathy died from a form of suicide. He supports this claim with the widely acknowledged fact that all cetaceans are voluntary air-breathers and all dolphins are of the order Cetacea. Unlike humans, and many other land-dwelling mammals, dolphins have the ability to choose when they take a breath, or consequently when they do not. According to O'Barry, after weeks of showing signs of depression Kathy swam into his arms, opened her blowhole to take a breath and then never took another.

Maybe that dolphin killed himself. Maybe he just died. I don't care. It does not change my view. I don't want to discuss that. I recommend "The Cove". There was this aquarium that could not keep it's dolphins alive, they all died. Until they found the problem : the water treatment engine was doing too much noise. For the dolphins - who can hear very well, that was torture.

A free dolphin plays with humans if we meet in the ocean. He is used to travel 40 miles a day, not because he is desperate for food as the machine wants us to think. That's just his life. He likes it.

[edit on 16-2-2010 by pai mei]

reply to post by pai mei


Such a shame when you see all the animals cooped up in small cages! realy gets to me sometimes, especially when you know that they shouldnt be there and out in the wild!

*sigh* When I first read the title of this topic I thought it was another plea for Global Warming ... I am not sure if I am glad or not that it wasn't.

Dolphins are highly intelligent animals and I would not be surprised if one did manage to commit suicide ...

Regardless though ... keeping animals in captivity is pointless and cruel ... unless of course it is for some humane purpose like treating an animal for a health problem or trying to bolster the number of species that is endangered.

I will never forget going to a zoo and seeing the tiger.

He was in a relatively medium-sized enclosure. But he was pacing the entire parameter of that enclosure. You could tell he'd done it for a LONG time because there was a path worn down.

Over and over. Back and forth.

This distressed me, and I asked why he did it. Was he just bored?

The zoo official sighed and told me that sometimes the animals "go crazy." His words.

I left that day with my views about zoos changed.

Yes, zoos do some good things....conservatin, education, etc. But at the time (and I would argue this still holds true) zoos were mainly entertainment.

Entertain us at the expense of the animals.

I've never been to a zoo since.

yeah dolphins are reallllllllllly freaky. i remember going on a 2 hour boat cruise on the atlantic ocean, unrelated to dolphins, in an area that was not known for dolphins. i kept telling hubby i hoped we would see a dolphin and urged him to go with me to see if we could see one off the deck. we went to top deck and looked down at the ocean as the boat moved along. a guy walked up next to us and stood there looking over the boat railings as well. he was a slender and gentle sort of guy. i told him i had hoped to see a dolphin. and he said, "you will." and just then a dolphin appeared in the water right along side the boat and swam next to where we were standing for a good 30 seconds before continuing on.

yep, dolphins are ..........well, i dunno, but i'd say they must have some additional abilities or something.

reply to post by pai mei


S&F for a great post. I was a Flipper fan, and have always had a infinity for Dolphins. I believe them to be the highets forms of life on this planet, much higher than humans.

From your link I quote this....

I'll borrow Toynbee's term Mother Earth. She's the first protagonist. She's alive, she's life itself. She conceives and births everything that grows. Many call her Nature. Christians call her Wilderness. Toynbee's other name for her is Biosphere. She is the dry land, the water and the earth enveloping our planet. She's the sole habitat of living beings. Toynbee describes her as a thin, delicate sking, no higher than planes can fly and no lower than mines can be dug. Limestone, coal and oil are part of her substance, they are matter that once lived. She selectively filters radiation from the sun, precisely in such a way as to keep life from burning. Toynbee calls her an excressence, a halo or rust on the planet's surface, and he speculates that there may be no other Biospheres.

Toynbee says Mankind, human beings, in other words We, have grown very powerful, more powerful than any other living beings, and at last more powerful than the Biosphere. Mankind has the power to wreck the delicate crust, and is doing it.

www.primitivism.com...

The Great Mother is sick, everyone. She reels from the ways mankind has polluted and destroyed her. We are Her Children, plain and simple, and it is up to us to heal Her.
I believe our ET friends will help us with this if we but ask as a people. The Dolphins could help us with this communication thing, you know. I know know how this could be done, I just know it can.

Originally posted by pai mei


A free dolphin plays with humans if we meet in the ocean. He is used to travel 40 miles a day, not because he is desperate for food as the machine wants us to think. That's just his life. He likes it.

[edit on 16-2-2010 by pai mei]

very true.

they are curious and playful and when you confront on in the sea, they are checking you out as much as you are them. you can feel it in your bones.

there was a dolphin research centre i visited once, the dolphins were never fed, they just arrived every morning to swim with the researchers. no reward given they just arrived.
and you know, the feeling i got was that the research was coming from both sides, the dolphins were studying the humans just as much as the humans were studying the dolphins.
One instance i remember clearly was a pregnant woman who came in for a swim. A female dolphin that came in that day came straight up to her and paused with her for a while, she did this with no one else. I don't even think the woman was showing either.
Incredible but at the same time, just right.

Nice thread, OP.

I think with dolphins, we see another facet of the human desire to ascribe enlightenment. We look to religious leaders, movies like Avatar, and the belief that just living in Tibet somehow makes someone "more in tune" or wiser.

It just isn't so. Dolphins are highly intelligent beings, and have perceptive capabilities far beyond that of humans. Their mindset is likely completely alien to us.

Regardless, I am a believer that all animals, all of my Creators creatures, have the right to proceed through their lives unhindered. Captive animals are something that i have deep issues with. I have dogs, but that is a relationship that we both seek out and enjoy. If they leave, they come back.

It's been a very, very long time since I visited a zoo. I find it just too depressing, While a lot of the critters don't care much one way or the other, most of the larger animals are slowly going stir crazy, and don't discount the torture aspect of never being away from curious gazes, the constant surveillance.

When I was a shrimper I had the good fortune to get to know a dolphin triad, two males and a female that hung around our boat for a week or so. How do I know their genders? Well, the males didn't flirt with me, for one thing. One of the oddest and most illuminating experiences of my life. I'd always known dolphins were highly intelligent, did a lot of reading about them over my life, but meeting them in the wild and interacting was awesome, in both the slang and dictionary definitions. The males had scars on their backs, when I asked about them they showed me how they got them, actually got pretty macho about it, while the female laughed and said they were both crazy. Seems they had a game of chicken they played with boats' props: the object of the game was to see how close they could get to the prop, getting up a huge head of steam and barreling under the boat from one side or the other. I agreed with the female: pretty crazy way to get your kicks. They all three thought humans were extremely amusing, terribly slow and vulnerable. I can't quite tell you how we communicated, exactly: a combination of body language, vocalizations, and the look in the eyes, opening our spirits to each other's, but the communications got clearer day by day. It was a fun week. The captain and mate thought I was nuts, but those dolphins and I talked a lot, and found a few games we could play together.

It's one of my most treasured memories.

I can't believe flipper killer herself =0 proper devistating. A little peice of me just died inside =\

I watched "The Cove," about a month ago. It is something that I would recommend everybody see, at least once.

I hope this fellow continues his work, and would like to see him expose what really goes on in relation to tuna fishing, and dolphin free tuna.

Honestly, this documentary was amazing, but I will warn you, it is also something you will see that will make you hate humanity!

Never will I forget that cove, the red water in it, and seeing the dolphins slaughtered.

I saw a grown man cry, who watched this with me, and well, I cried too!

To be honest, if I had anything to do with the making of "Flipper the movie", I'd kill myself to.

But seriously...poor dolphins. I do feel bad that they get the whole false "just an animal" wrap.

They are intelligent and cognitive things and should be given rights equal to our own.

The rest of the animals out there still need to keep filming movies and feeding me...because they are "just animals".

Poor dolphin...that does suck.

Zoo's and Aquariums have always been very depressing to me.

Many times i've wanted to take the whip from the abuser and use it on them.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
I will never forget going to a zoo and seeing the tiger.

He was in a relatively medium-sized enclosure. But he was pacing the entire parameter of that enclosure. You could tell he'd done it for a LONG time because there was a path worn down.

Over and over. Back and forth.

This distressed me, and I asked why he did it. Was he just bored?

The zoo official sighed and told me that sometimes the animals "go crazy." His words.

I left that day with my views about zoos changed.

Yes, zoos do some good things....conservatin, education, etc. But at the time (and I would argue this still holds true) zoos were mainly entertainment.

Entertain us at the expense of the animals.

I've never been to a zoo since.

I think that only certain zoos should be open. Those that have the wealth and expenses to recreate the habitats of the animals and give them enough room to roam as well as hide. The animals need enough resources and habitat to be able to act out their natural insticts. The Toronto Zoo does well for this. Road side zoos are dangerous as they are small, often dirty, and can't afford what is needed so the animals are placed into dangerous situations where they develop behavioural problems-Some cages may be so ill suited that they have broken and endangered the public. I find marine zoos to be similar to road side zoos in that no matter how much they try, they cannot reach the needed habitat and cannot make a natural environment for the animals-In this circumstance no matter how hard humans try it won't work.

The Cove finally hit MSM attention:

www.youtube.com...

Just on Fox News I think.

[edit on 14-3-2010 by drew hempel]

I had always wondered if these dolphin shows were good or bad for the animals, but the people involved always seemed so into their work, I thought that captivity must be no problem for the animals.

Then I read about "The Cove", and I'll never see another dolphin show. They really shouldn't put these animals into this type of situation. Maybe they could bring wild dolphins in for shows that are part of the local habitat, and leave them to come and go as they please, but keeping them trapped in these small pools is just inhumane.

I think it would be nice to create animal habitats, but these zoos gotta go. Heck, the woolly mammoth once roamed N. America, maybe elephants could be reintroduced, wild horses were.