Thousands Petition to Demand Arizona's 'Swim with the Dolphins' Park be Stopped Lorraine Chow - EcoWatch
go to original April 30, 2016

Swimming with Wild Dolphins VR — Dolphin Project 360 (RYOT)

A plan to open a dolphin attraction in the Arizona desert is being met with intense criticism and backlash. Mexico-based Dolphinaris is set to open a $20 million “dolphinarium” on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community near the suburb of Scottsdale this July.

The facility allows visitors to swim with and ride the captive marine animals. Parent company Ventura Entertainment already owns five of these facilities across Mexico. The Arizona location will be their first one in the U.S.

An unnamed employee of A.R. Mays, the construction company building the project, told TakePart that the facility will house eight dolphins in a million-gallon tank.

Unsurprisingly, animal rights advocates are speaking out against the project, saying that the highly intelligent, socially complex beings do not belong in tanks in the arid desert. A Care2 petition directed at Ventura CEO Mauricio Martinez del Alva has been signed by more than 116,000 people.

Send a big "NO" to captive dolphins in Arizona at Care2.com

Read the rest at EcoWatch

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!