Over the weekend of October 17th-18th 2015, Rob Dyrdek uploaded a photo of what appears to be a private gathering at the Mirage Casino Dolphin Habitat after hours. While activsts were out standing out on the strip, educating the tourists about the horrors of dolphin captivity, Rob was gushing about the attire of his guests and the “pod” of dolphins swimming in a small pool in the Mojave desert.
These ten dolphins do not get any relief from extreme temperatures in the summer time. The UV rays burn their skin just like humans. Three of these dolphins belong to SeaWorld, who placed them in the desert hoping they would produce several offspring to further the captive gene pool. These dolphins are subjected to chewing gum in the pools, leaky tanks, left in a beached position for several minutes for photos, and gated away from their family members.
We have noticed during the last 12 months that Viacom (the company that owns many television networks such as Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, LOGO, and Spike) has had several of their network stars directly promoting the dolphin habitat through their social media postings and indirectly through their promotional bookings and showings at the Terry Fator theater inside of the Mirage casino.
While we understand that Rob and Bryiana Noelle Flores were recently married, and we are in no way trying to take away from their special day, we DO want to stress the importance of educating celebrities who choose to boast about such experiences while the animals are left to suffer. Rob and Bryiana are in a very fortunate place in life that has given them a platform to reach hundreds of thousands of people around the globe.
We urge Bryiana and Rob to watch documentaries such as “Blackfish” and “The Cove”, research the effects of captivity on cetaceans, and ask themselves if they really believe that sentient mammals such as dolphins belong in barren swimming pools, hundreds of miles from the ocean in the middle of the driest desert in the country. We ask that they speak to fellow celebrities such as Steve-o (who also received popularity thanks to MTV) and Joe Rogan and listen to their opinion on why they have joined the crusade against cetaceans in captivity.
.@robdyrdek #MojaveDolphins are SUFFERING at Mirage. Here are some facts to help you learn. Plz dont promote them pic.twitter.com/J20Dxj0ECG (Tweet)
.@robdyrdek #MojaveDolphins should not be kept in desert swimming pools. Talk to @steveo about why this is wrong! pic.twitter.com/Br1w9GPqaY (Tweet)
.@robdyrdek Exploiting #MojaveDolphins is not entertaining, funny OR cool. Please consider helping the 10 dolphins pic.twitter.com/jDvYTL1CVM (Tweet)
(If we see her Twitter come back online, we will design some tweet sheets to Bryiana. Stay tuned and be on the look out! In the mean time, feel free to leave polite, information comments on her facebook and instagram pages)
The outbreak of the dolphin pox virus at the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas that began more than four years ago may be finally coming to a close.
The disease is said to have gotten its start when Cosmo, the male dolphin born at SeaWorld Orlando, was transferred to the Mirage on March 28th 2010. He stayed at the habitat in the desert until December 6th 2013, when he was shipped to San Diego, and eventually to one of the many dolphin prisons in Florida.
Maverick, August 2014
When a Mirage trainer was questioned about Maverick’s condition earlier this month, she responded saying that once Cosmo arrived in San Diego with warmer waters, his virus began to clear up so they applied the same techniques here (Which would mean that the poxvirus should be gone at Seaworld San Diego and Seaworld Orlando…)She also said the Mirage habitat water is currently reading at about 78F.
Funny that such a simple solution took more than four years for the vet staff in charge of the dolphins at Mirage (and even longer for the dolphins at Seaworld) to come up with and apply. With our limited resources here at MojaveDolphins.Com, we were able to come to the conclusion that water temperature and salinity were the major factors that needed to be looked into.
Maverick, January 2015
The Mirage dolphin habitat was inspected by the government not one, not two, but FIVE times last year. Why is it that the government saw nothing wrong with visually ill dolphins swimming around in tanks with chipped paint and no protection from the harsh environment that is the Mojave desert?
The waves are finally starting to roll in the last two years. We have seen an explosion of people joining the fight for cetacean rights. Movies like “The Cove” and “Blackfish” are causing people to see that these sentient mammals deserve our respect.
Maverick, and all other dolphins in captivity around the globe, may look happier to the naked eye because they are not covered in lesions, but remember to tell your family and friends that this is not the case. The dolphins at the Mirage do not deserve to live the remainder of their life in a concrete swimming pool in the middle of the desert.
