A couple of weeks ago, DWTS contestant and country singer, Jana Kramer, posted a sponsored Instagram pic from Discovery Cove, a Seaworld Property, where she and her infant daughter got to swim with the dolphins. Kramer defended her decision to go to Discovery Cove, a visit which was comped by the amusement park, and equated it with eating meat and drinking wine. It was a dumb false equivalence but I guess she doesn’t care at all, as is sadly the case for a lot of people about issues which don’t affect them or their immediate social group. Dolphins in captivity are often taken in violent conditions from coves where the adults are murdered and the babies are separated from their mothers. They’re frequently held in terrible conditions and forced into small unnatural spaces to perform and interact with humans. It’s cruel and people who visit those parks help perpetuate that.
Bethenny Frankel of RHONY and SkinnyGirl “fame” recently Instagrammed that she was so excited to bring her daughter, Bryn, 6, to swim with the dolphins in The Bahamas, where they’re on vacation. Bethenny is a vegetarian and raised Bryn vegetarian so you would think that she cares about animals and is informed about them. Not so much and I would guess Bethenny’s vegetarianism is about staying thin instead of having a minimal impact on animal welfare and the environment. (I wouldn’t think this about other thin women who are vegetarians, but this is Bethenny she’s an a-hole and being thin is her brand.) People has the details on Bethenny’s Instagrams about swimming with the dolphins. I looked on her Instagram and they’re not there anymore because they were Instagram stories, which delete themselves after 24 hours.
“How is everyone? We’re going to swim with the dolphins today! Yay!” the reality star said in a post on her Instagram story. She later uploaded a video of dolphins swimming in the Caribbean’s sparkling blue, saying, “See those dolphins out there?”
While Frankel was all smiles in the footage, social media users didn’t seem too happy. Many took the video’s comment section to criticize the star.
“I love you Bethenny, but you should really educate yourself on the realities of these ‘swim with the dolphins programs,’ ” one commenter wrote. “These are incredible smart animals that do not belong in captivity.”
Another wrote: “You rock but you should know better. Watch the docu on dolphin capture. You’re so smart. Can’t believe you would give your $$ to this terrible program for these poor babies.”
I’m surprised Bethenny posted these as Instagram stories, because she usually revels in her ignorance and defends it. Surely she knew what she was doing by talking about this online. I asked in the title if she was trolling by posting this but that’s kind of an irrelevant question. Her entire popularity is based on trolling and she’s on RHONY, which just premiered. So she’s posting bikini pics and saying controversial things. Rinse and repeat.
From Bethenny’s Instagram:
She’s a real housewife of whatever tf it is & face of skinnygirl. Shes always trolling, schilling & pimping something
She just wants bikini pictures. The kid is an excuse.
I think her coffee/prostitute post is equally gross
I don’t know much about this woman, thank goodness, but agree with Chelly, Belle Epoch and Angel. What has happened to her cheek – it looks really painful?
There’s no denying that dolphins are just so beautiful to watch, but that’s all people should do – watch. I recently went on a short cruise, from Sydney to Southern Tasmania. Eh, cruises I can take or leave, but it was a family thing. Had I continued to decline, I’d have missed seeing a large pod of dolphins swimming and cavorting alongside the ship for about 40 minutes. They were very close to the ship and seemed to be really enjoying themselves, and then, they just swam away. It was such a beautiful sight.
About eight years ago, I visited Shark Bay, across the other side of Australia from where I live. It is a protected area and famous for the Monkey Mia dolphins that visit the beach each day. Visitors are not permitted to touch or swim with them, and unless supervised by the rangers at scheduled times only, must not go within 30 metres of the dolphins. When I was there, I just stayed on the very edge of the shallow water and took some great photos. There’s no need to one-up anyone by interfering with these beautiful creatures – they’re not pets and they’re not playthings.
For more info:
http://www.sharkbay.org.au/monkey_mia_intro.aspx
http://www.monkeymiadolphins.org
I watched the first couple of seasons of RHONY. Back then I would have never predicted that Bethenny would end up as successful as she (allegedly) is. Now I just wish she would disappear.
Is she really a vegetarian? I ,shamefully, admit that I watch RHoNY and I feel like they’ve shown her eating meat many times.
I was going to say the same thing. Who can forget her infamous steak dinner on Scary Island, where Bethenny ate meat and Kelly freaked about hers being underdone (along with Jelly Beans, Al Sharpton, etc). Anyway, I think Betheny is one of those people who eats a mostly plant-based diet plus some meat/fish/chicken, for health (not cruelty) reasons.
Shameful RHONY viewer here…I’m not so sure she’s a vegetarian either. Whenshe has the Mexican party for her skinny girl margaritas she made a comment to one of the caterers about not wanting to serve vegetarian ceviche ‘what’s the point’ is along the lines of what she said.
I don’t know where exactly she and her daughter were swimming with dolphins, but it is possible to do so without the animal being in captivity. I totally agree that holding any animal in captivity is cruel in one way or another (which is why I won’t give zoos etc my money), but there are plenty of places in the world where you can swim/interact with animals that are not captive.
I’m not 100% sure how I feel about that – because obviously interaction with humans impacts animal behavior/evolution in the long run…but I was in the Galapagos Islands not long ago, and one of the things most naturist guides said to us was that they could see animal behaviors changing (sea lion pups, for example, have started nipping at swimmers in the last 10 years), but that halting tourist activity would 1) take away desperately needed income from local communities 2)make the reserves financially unsustainable.
Sorry, gone a bit off topic – my point was that swimming with dolphins does not necessarily equal dolphins being captive.
Clare, as per my post above, Monkey Mia is a great example of how getting close to dolphins in their natural habitat, while maintaining tourism, can be managed.
meanwhile, her body looks awful
Can I just say that not all zoos or aqauriums are awful? There are places that do conservation work. Until things like deforestation, poaching and illegal fishing stop, some animals need a safe space. And there are usually breeding programs in place to make sure animals dont extinct completely. So if charging a ticket helps keep these places funded so they continue to do conservation and research then…so be it.