Dolphin Pox Running Rampant

Dolphin Pox Running Rampant

At the beginning of this week, an anonymous follower of our cause was able to get into Seaworld Orlando and photograph and ID several dolphins which are infected with pox. The whistleblower is quoted saying

I just got back from the park, got you a few pictures of some of the dolphins with pox. A lot of them at Cove have it, some really bad. Out of all of the ones I laid eyes on for sure, there were only a handful that I didn’t see any marks on. Can they contract that disease from each other? I saw a small spot on the juvenile female Haley. She is constantly pursued by an older male, Lagos, who is one that has the pox pretty bad. So I was just wondering how it spreads, if it’s contagious, etc.

I did not see any in Nursery that had it. But two, possibly three in the stadium (Baretta, Clyde, Marble) have it. I was not able to get great pictures of them but I got one that at least shows it on Baretta.


oscar

 

The user was able to obtain six photographs of different dolphins showing what appears to be dolphin pox virus. The dolphins in question are Tiger, Oscar, Alpha and Potter from Discovery Cove and Baretta and Marble from the Stadium.

These photographs go on to support the idea that the dolphins here in Las Vegas were infected with the pox virus after SeaWorld Orlando shipped Beetle and Cosmo over on a breeding loan in March 2010. Photographs have been found on flickr dating back to Summer 2010 showing dolphins with pox inside the Mojave pools. No photographs have been found prior. An educator at the Mirage told me that the “spots came from dolphins they got from another facility”. Mirage has only done one trade in 2006 with Gulf World in Panama City, and received dolphins from each Seaworld Park in their 2010/2014 breeding loan.

When dolphins are sent to a new facility and they are known to have a medical condition, they Potterare to be isolated from other healthy dolphins until a vet has determined that they are in good health. Any communicable disease condition in a newly acquired marine mammal must be remedied before it is placed with resident marine mammals. The exception is when placing the infected animal with the resident animal as a companion outweigh the risks to the resident animal. Any holding facility used for medical purposes that has contained a marine mammal with an infectious or contagious disease must be cleaned and/or sanitized in a manner prescribed by a veterinarian. No healthy animals may be introduced into this holding facility prior to such cleaning and/or sanitizing procedures. Any marine mammal exposed to a contagious animal must be evaluated by the attending veterinarian and monitored and/or isolated for an appropriate period of time as determined by the vet.

This means that a vet at some point had to have checked out each of these animals and determined that the need to have dolphins in the desert outweighed the dolphins own health. alphaWith at least 3 dolphins out of 10 in Las Vegas showing signs of pox, including some from the breeding loan with Seaworld, it will only be a matter of time before the pools of Las Vegas are over-run with dolphin pox.

The animals in both locations are still being used in day to day tourist activities The Mirage offers a swim with program and Seaworld’s dolphins are used in a feeding and petting programs.

As of right now, neither park have responded with a straight answer about the condition of the dolphins, and what is being done to help them.

Bareta Marble

 


8 Comments

Ariana Grande, do you still love dolphins? | Free the Mojave Dolphins

September 10, 2014 at 3:20 pm

[…] It is possible that Ariana just has no idea about what is going on within the confines of this hotel. Even people in Las Vegas are oblivious to the fact that dolphins even live in the Mojave desert thanks to MGM resorts. Just last year, Ariana made a public statement denouncing SeaWorld and their use of cetaceans for captivity. Killer whales are just one type of dolphin. SeaWorld is tied to the Mirage because they have a “breeding loan” program, with 3 dolphins in Las Vegas arriving from SeaWorld. We also speculate the origin of the poxvirus to be the SeaWorld shipment of 2010. […]

Dolphin Pox Running Rampant | Free the Mojave Dolphins

September 1, 2014 at 2:38 pm

[…] Read the article on our new site MojaveDolphins.Com […]

九州娛樂城

August 26, 2014 at 9:06 pm

九州娛樂城

Wonderful content, thank You !!

芒果乾

August 19, 2014 at 3:57 pm

芒果乾

Great site, Thanks for sharing!!

Cath Diomedou

August 8, 2014 at 8:59 pm

Guys your doing a great job..keep up the pressure….it’s unacceptable to sacrifice these beautiful dolphins freedom!!

    mojavedolphins

    August 8, 2014 at 9:02 pm

    Thank you! We couldn’t do it without you guys

Carolyn Emole

August 7, 2014 at 8:57 pm

Please tell us what we can do to get these beautiful creatures out of there!!!!

    mojavedolphins

    August 8, 2014 at 9:01 pm

    Please check out the ways you can help page

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