Neuroscientist and dolphin researcher Lori Marino takes on dolphin-assisted therapy (DAT):
DAT typically involves several sessions either swimming or interacting with captive dolphins, often alongside more conventional therapeutic tasks, such as puzzle-solving or motor exercises. The standard price of DAT sessions, whose practitioners are not required by law to receive any special training or certification, is exorbitant, reaching into the thousands of dollars. It has become a highly lucrative international business, with facilities in Mexico, Israel, Russia, Japan, China and the Bahamas, as well as the US. DAT practitioners claim to be particularly successful in treating depression and motor disorders, as well as childhood autism. But DAT is sometimes less scrupulously advertised as being effective with a range of other disorders, from cancer to infections, to developmental delays. …
[T]here is absolutely no evidence for DAT’s therapeutic effectiveness. At best, there might be short-term gains attributable to the feel-good effects of being in a novel environment and the placebo boost of having positive expectations. Nothing more. … DAT clients are often among the most vulnerable members of society, so the industry takes advantage of them. The pseudoscientific patina and untested testimonials serve to reel in desperate parents and people suffering with severe anxiety or depression who will do anything to get some relief. They are persuaded by words such as ‘treatment’ and ‘therapy’ and by the misuse of scientific methods, such as EEG to measure brainwave patterns, which suggest scientific legitimacy.
He also writes that the dolphins are “psychologically and physically traumatised” from captivity. India, which is banning keeping dolphins in captivity because they “should be seen as non-human persons with rights,” seems to agree. Lex Berko prods the US to take a lesson from the section of the Indian constitution that allows issues like this to reach the courts:
[India’s Directive Principles of State Policy] are meant to help guide the courts in making decisions in line with the character of the country. Combined with widening access to courts beginning in the 1980s, they’ve allowed a wide variety of animal protection issues, covering everything from cow slaughter to circus animals to stray dogs, to be heard by the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. In fact, the courts not only hear the cases, but sometimes go so far as to offer compelling screeds on the validity of animals having rights, something you haven’t heard and probably won’t hear anytime soon from a powerful court in the US. …
By contrast, in the United States the idea of animal rights invokes images of red paint and militant vegans. I could go on for days about why that perception is misinformed, but that’s not the point here. The point is that India has taken steps to better the lives of animals using the law and some very potent language.
The Dish 