Has the Mojave Dolphins movement finally broken into the mainstream after 25 years?
Last night TBS aired an episode of their show Ground Floor titled “The Proposal – Part one (S2E09”). The episode stars Skylar Astin and Briga Heelan as Brody and Jenny respectively. It’s Brody’s birthday, and Jenny is trying to find the perfect gift. She is pointed to his old MySpace page which contains a list of things Brody had wanted to accomplish before he turned 30. The group will be in Vegas for a wedding, so Jenny decides to take Brody to the Mirage to swim with the dolphins.
The actual trip to the dolphin habitat is not shown on screen, nor is the facility or hotel mentioned by their name. When you see Jenny and Brody again, their conversation goes something like this:
Jenny: “I thought we were going to have luck swimming with the dolphins, but those dolphins just look too sad!” Brody: “It’s almost like they don’t love living in the desert!”
Brody speaks the truth that we all have been shouting for over two decades. Dolphins do not belong swimming in concrete pools in the middle of the Mojave desert, hundreds of miles from their natural habitat.
This brilliant episode shows how far the movement for cetacean rights has come, and specifically the issue here in the Mojave desert. The dolphins have been suffering in this hotel for 25 years, and it has only been recently that the hotel has started to take notice to the shift in the public’s awareness on how they are treating these sentient creatures. All we need for this to be a successful breakthrough is one person to decide to not attend the Mirage Hotel and Casino due their treatment of dolphins.
We have every reason to believe that someone on the team of Ground Floor has heard about our cause, and we are very thankful for the shout out on national television. We look forward to gaining the support of many more influential people in the future.
Please take the time to send a thank you note to the people involved in the making of the episode. Let them know how much it meant to you to see a show finally take a step in the right direction. Also, reminder, if you will be in Las Vegas on 2/28, our next protest is from 4:00 to 6:00 pm!
Mini Tweetsheet to Ground Floor cast & crew
Just click on the tweets & they will open up in a new window, already typed up for you. Just hit send!
What an amazing experience this last week was. Where to begin?
On Wednesday, we picked up Ric O’Barry to go do a radio show for KNPR Las Vegas. The interview lasted about 13 minutes, and gave him an opportunity to educate an audience that would probably never go looking for our cause otherwise. The interview has been uploaded online.
Afterwards, My News 3 met us at his hotel for a quick interview. Hotel management came down, asking questions about the interview. We assured them the hotel would not be mentioned, and told them about the cause. Upper management also came down before the interview ended. We were informed that they usually cut these interviews off and do not let them happen. When Ric O’Barry finished his interview, the management team from the hotel shook his hand and said they were big fans. One worker said he got our flyers at his college, and would be attending the showing.
Thursday was the big day. We had been planning this event for 5 months, and couldn’t believe it was finally here. The showing of The Cove with Ric O’Barry. We arrived early, and began to set up the auditorium, while Dolphin Project team members sold merchandise to people waiting. Bikers 4 Orcas Socal provided the tissues with dolphin clips that were seated on your chair when you came inside. Doors opened at 7pm, as our youtube videos played on the big screen. People entered the door to a table with a sign in sheet, petitions, and a jar to place questions to Ric in. After we thanked everyone for attending, especially the Cove Monitors from Taiji, and the movie began to play, silence was heard throughout the theater. Everybody’s eyes were glued to the screen. I forgot how much of an impact this movie has on your soul. 180 people attended the screening overall. One third of the theater had never seen the movie before, and I am positive they walked out of that screening a changed person. Ric answered questions, and people hung on his every word. He spent so much time talking with us, that we had to leave the theater because our time was over. Ric is such a gentle, kind soul. He made sure to talk to as many people as he could, signing autographs and posing for many photos. We hung outside of the theater until the crowd fizzled away to get sleep for the next days protest. ((View photos from event here))
We arrived at the protest around 4:30, and a crowd had already begun to form. Before we knew it, we had over 100 protesters. People traveled from Washington, Utah, California, Arizona, Florida and further to protest for dolphin rights next to the man who started it all. I can’t even count the number of people who said we completed items on their bucket list. Ric O’Barry protested with us the entire 2 hours, giving his expert opinion on all dolphin questions thrown his way. His sign was a replica of the same sign he used back in his opening day demonstration of the Mirage. The message is still the same- Enough is enough! 24 years is a long time to be stranded closer to Death Valley than the ocean from which these dolphins originate. The sidewalk was flooded with people holding signs, and passing out brochures to anyone who was interested. We passed out over 600, and signed hundreds of letters to the MGM head honchos. As the lights on the strip began to sparkle, and the memory of the dolphins were long gone from the minds of the tourists who had seen them earlier in the day, we stood strong, united as a voice for the voiceless. ((View photos from event here))
Photo by NatureSound.org
The protest made the news, and many people have written online about their experience. Our friends at Vegas Rock Dog Radio spoke out about it on her radio show the following day. It starts at about 27:30, click to listen. Thanks for the shoutout, Sam. We really appreciate it, and look forward to working with you again in the future.
We have uploaded all of the photos from both events onto our facebook page, and we are working on getting the video from the Q&A segment from the screening online for everyone to review, or watch for the first time. Please be patient while we get that up. As soon as it is available, you will be the first to know!
We feel forever thankful to have Ric O’Barry set aside time in his schedule and pay us a visit in the middle of the Mojave Desert. This is an experience we will never forget. We are more motivated than ever to do what is right by these 10 dolphins. We hope you are too.
Our lovely friends at Fins and Fluke have invited us to be a part of their environmental radio program, Fins and Fluke Radio. We will be representing the Mojave Dolphins live on the air tomorrow, September 18th, at 5:30pm eastern, 2:30pm pacific. The radio program takes place online, so no matter where you are, you are able to listen in. Help us spread the global message that dolphins do not belong in the middle of the Mojave desert!
Last weekend we were invited to appear on Vegas Rock Dog Radio. It was quite the experience! We got to broadcast live to the entire world via a real radio studio. The both of us were extremely nervous going into it- but we left the station feeling accomplished and proud. We gave the 10 Mojave Dolphins a voice. People who had no idea that dolphins were even in the desert were now made aware of their plight. We are very thankful for the opportunity we were given and feel blessed to have made new connections with animal friends in the Las Vegas area.
If you missed out on the radio show and would like to give it a listen, click this link (.mp3!).
Please do not forget to check out Vegas Rock Dog Radio and listen to their next live show.
