Over the past few months Dr Horace Dobbs has been appearing as expert witness in the trial of two young men from Folkestone in the UK accused and now convicted
of harassing a wild animal. Both men were sentenced to 120 hours of community service.
This is an unfortunate case of point in the ongoing debate as to whether humans and dolphins should interact in the wild or not. In this case it appears alcohol was involved and the two young men were intoxicated at the time they chose to swim. The Dolphin's name is Dave and is a well known female Bottlenose dolphin who is in the class of 'Ambassador dolphins'.
Ambassador dolphins are lone dolphins who turn up in various locations and form relationships and freely interact with humans in the area they are visiting. These dolphins are not trained, they have not escaped from a sea-world park, they are wild dolphins who seek human company and stimulation though remain wild and free to come and go as they choose, living in the ocean and feeding themselves.
Dr Dobbs is arguably the leading world expert in this phenomena. Dobbs has maintained close relationships with many of these 'ambassador dolphins' over the years and has made several documentaries on the subject and pioneering the ground breaking work of dolphin assisted therapy with wild dolphins treating clinical depression through his pilot project Operation Sunflower. He maintains that it is an unfortunate ruling and sets a dangerous precident for the prosecution of anyone found to have interacted with a dolphin in the wild.
I have included the following press release sent to me by Ms Jackie Connell the CEO of Operation Sunshine as UK registered charity that specialises in Dolphin assisted therapy with wild dolphins
PRESS RELEASE, Thursday
17th April 2008
Today David Buck and Michael Jukes were found guilty at Dover Magistrates Court of disturbing a friendly wild female dolphin, known as Dave, at Sandgate near Folkestone at around 5.30am on 9th June 2007.
A local resident videoed the men playing with the dolphin. The police were called and the two young men were arrested and charged with disturbing the dolphin.
After several delays, the case was opened on 4th February 2008 and then adjourned until 14th April 2008.
The prosecution was strongly supported by representatives from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), and Marine Connection, who jointly have a policy that swimming with wild dolphins should be banned.
This view was diametrically opposed by Dr. Horace Dobbs, The Honorary Director of International Dolphin Watch http://www.idw.org/.
Dr. Dobbs argued that by deliberately swimming to the men from further out to sea and then encouraging them to play with her was natural behaviour for what he calls “Ambassador Dolphins”, i.e. sociable wild dolphins seeking human company, like Dave.
The three magistrates viewed the police video. The prosecution however, objected to the magistrates seeing a DVD provided by Dr. Dobbs showing the typical behaviour of other sociable wild dolphins.
When the verdict was announced, the men were each given fines of £350 and 120 hours community service. After announcing a verdict, the chief magistrate warned the two men that if they did not comply with these penalties, they could be given custodial sentences.
When the verdict was announced, Dr. Dobbs commented “the prospect of being put in jail for interacting with a playful dolphin that swims up to you in the open sea and can swim away at any time in my opinion is ludicrous”.
For most people dolphins, such as Dave, are symbols of freedom. Dolphins are mammals with a brain as large as humans and with a free will. To deliberately prevent their natural behaviour is a sad reflection on organisations promoting this policy.
Dr. Horace Dobbs can be contacted by phone on 079795 22276 and 01482 632650, Email horace@drdobbs.karoo.co.uk, fax 01482 634914.
Dr. Dobbs is Patron of a registered charity 1121315, Operation Sunshine Family Therapy Programmes, that take special needs families to swim with dolphins in their natural environment http://www.operationsunshine.org/
Dr. Dobbs will be attending a scientific conference in May in Dingle where the issues involving friendly wild dolphins will be debated http://www.irishdolphins.com/conference/ .
This blog is written by Andrew Parker of Newcastle NSW Australia. Andrew is principal of the adventure training company DolphCom Solutions www.dolphcom.com.au
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