Don’t Make Honey Suffer Anymore! Give Honey a Peaceful Life

Honey was pregnant when she was captured

Honey is left alone in Inubousaki Marine Park which is already closed. She is a wild bottlenose dolphine that was captured by drill hunt in Taiji in Wakayama prefecture in February 2005.
She gave birth to “Marine” at June 26, 2005.
Bottlenose dolphins’ pregnancy period is 12 monthes. There is also a record showing Marine’s father is a wild dolphin, it can be said that Honey was pregnant when she was captured.
There is a news paper article of when Honey was captured.

“『Unexpected baby  A dolphin gave birth to a baby at Inubousaki Marine Park』
The mother was just transported to the park after being captured at Taiji in Wakayama prefecture in this February. She got pregnant in the ocean and her keeper did not realize that she is pregnant until right before she gave birth to a baby. (…) A keeper who went to buy Honey spoke, “If I had known that she’s pregnant, I would have thought she cannot endure 16 hours of truck transportation from Taiji to Choshi and I wouldn’t have bought her.” (quoted from the article)

Honey was captured when she was pregnant and her family members were killed by drill hunt. She was transported by truck for 16 hours.

Dolphines are put in boxes like coffin when they are transported.
Human beings can estimate how long it will take to get to the destination when they move to places by their will. However, Honey was suddenly captured, put into a box, not knowing where to go, and beeing transported for a long time in a truck that make engine noises. For Honey, it must have been very scary.

Photo: Heals The Oceans Japan　※The boxes in the picture are not actually used for Honey’s transportation

Honey lost her son

“Marine,” Honey’s son died. If they were not captured, maybe they would be living happily in the ocean.

Dolphines raise their children in groups coorporating with other young female dolphins. The environment of the aquariums does not allow dolphins to do so. That is not appropriate for child dolphines because they cannot learn sociability. Often dolphins born at aquariums tend to have shorter life. Only 10-20 percent of dolphins born by artificial breeding can survive for 1 year.

Marine only knew life of performing at dolphin shows in concrete water tank and died. Honey got pregnant in the ocean, survived the transportation with the baby, gave birth to the baby in tiny abnormal place, but she lost her son.

Honey might be suffering from internal disease

We had Dr. Heather Rally diagnose Honey by looking at her pictures and videos.  Dr. Heather Rally is a California licensed veterinarian with specific training in marine mammal medicine and dolphin health assessment. She is the Supervising Veterinaarian of Captive Animal Law Enforcement with the PETA Foundation in the United States.

It turned out that Honey’s back is chlonically dry and sunburned. Dr. Heather Rally said, “Her appearance suggests that she is suffering from an internal disease process causing buoyancy disruption and secondary skin disease, which is are undoubtedly distressing and painful. In light of this, I believe this dolphin to be in imediate need of veterinary evaluation and treatment by a qualified, third-party, marine mammal veterinarian.”

You can find more detail of her diagnosis from here. 

Don’t take advantage of Honey anymore!

Honey, who was living in the ocean with her family and friends was captured by human brings and sold to the aquarium. Her son died because of the environment of the aquarium. Because there is need for exibition of animals and dolphin show, Honey was deprived of too many important things.

Wild instinct, freedom, friends of the group, life as a dolphin, and thier children. We need to respect wild animals’ natural habitat.

However, if Honey is moved to another aquarium in Japan, to maintain dolphin show business, she will be forced to get pregnant again. There is more and more voices against catching animals from the wild, but they want to maintain dolphin shows.

Honey is still left alone in the tiny pool. For Honey’s health, improvement of the environment, liberation from artificial breeding and dolphin shows, and sending her to a sanctuary, please send post cards to Inubousaki Marine Park!