A former dolphin trainer, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Dodo,

"Dolphins are beautiful and amazing creatures in their natural habitat. But stick them in a cage, and you watch them change."

Credit: One Green Planet

He says that dolphins and other cetaceans do not belong in enclosures because it hinders their use of instinctual behaviors and causes them a great deal of stress. As programs where people can swim with dolphins increase, so do the number of dolphins being held in captivity.

During his tenure as a trainer at two different facilities, the trainer, who still works in the Caribbean hotel industry, said that his concern for the treatment of the creatures grew the longer he worked there. At one of the locations, 40 dolphins were forced into three compact cages.

Credit: Gray Line

Since the dolphins were in open sea pens rather than housed in manufactured pools, oftentimes nails, fish hooks, and other harmful debris would float into the enclosures and be accidentally swallowed. The facility didn't have a veterinarian to care for the animals, so there was nothing they could do to save the dolphins as their insides were torn apart by the metal trash.

Though the cages were often cleaned, the smell of chlorine was so strong afterwards that it would choke the trainers and eventually caused several of the dolphins to go blind.