Student Producer/ Co-host: Arra B. Francia
Episode: October 8, 2014
Guest: Trixie Concepcion, Regional Director, Earth Island Institute
***In case you missed this episode, click here for the transcript to know exactly what we discussed and here for the audio recording.
Episode: October 8, 2014
Guest: Trixie Concepcion, Regional Director, Earth Island Institute
Dolphins have this strange feature that makes them
look like they’re smiling all the time. Miss Trixie Concepcion, regional
director of Earth Island Institute Philippines explained this to Ma’am Khrysta
and I during last week’s episode of Kwentuhang Pets at iba pa. Muscles in their
mouth actually stretch till the sides of their chin, to help dolphins produce
sounds to communicate with each other. So no matter what state you see them in,
they’d always look up with a perpetual smile on their face.
Tonka was a dolphin. He was born in the wild about 18
years ago. He was meant to swim the oceans and explore the waters with his pod
--- carefree and without boundaries. But with a terrible twist of fate that
happened a decade ago, he was taken from his home and locked up inside an
aquarium, only to entertain humans who amused themselves with animal shows. And
as if being taken away from your family and used by other species for fun wasn’t
enough, pause right there. It gets worse.
On September 17, Tonka, the last of six false-killer
whales in Ocean Park- Subic was declared dead because of an alleged intestinal
problem.
Tonka’s case reflects one of the many cases of the
terrors behind animal captivity. Since its establishment in 2001, Ocean Park
has already witnessed the death of six of its false killer whales, four
bottle-nosed dolphins and one sea lion.
An administrative order issued to the Department of
Agriculture in 1992 bans the “taking or
catching, selling, purchasing, possessing, transporting and exporting of dolphins”
in the country. The animal facility, however, justifies its possession
of these marine animals by exporting them from the annual Japanese drive hunt.
In 2007, a total of 1, 623 dolphins were caught for human consumption and for
resale to animal facilities like Ocean Park. You could hear the indignation of
Miss Trixie’s voice while relating this to the listeners of the radio show. Not only do humans once again assert their power as
the higher species, but they also exploit the weakness of animals in such drive
hunts.
Being usually nonchalant about matters like this, I
felt like my eyes were seeing these animals for the first time. I always say
that I love animals. My family actually owns two dogs and seven cats right now.
But the love I felt was reserved for my pets alone. While doing for the radio
show, I was finding out more about the animal kingdom than I ever did in my
life. It is hard not to get enraged when you read the news about rabbits being
skinned, monkeys pierced in their eyes with high heels and dolphins being taken
out of the wild for animal shows. Though
I know I won’t be a vegan or an animal activist after the show, my compassion
for these animals has taken on a different level.
Now all I can imagine is how Tonka was still smiling
at the last moments of his life. It’s a cruel trick played by nature, mastered
all the more by the brutality of some people. If Tonka was able to show what he
really felt, I’m sure it would have been the face of absolute terror and misery,
not gladness.
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| From left to right: Student producer Arra, Ma'am Khrysta and guest Trixie Concepcion in the DZUP studio discussing the issues on animal captivity. |
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| We pose for a group photo after the episode. |
***In case you missed this episode, click here for the transcript to know exactly what we discussed and here for the audio recording.
Happy listening!
