Dolphins need to be protected. Everyone in the world including one of the worlds largest tour operator TUI in Germany agreed and agreed to eliminate orca and dolphin shows from its catalogues – or not ?

Negotiations with the German-based Whale and Dolphin Protection Forum (WDSF) resulted in trips to orca and dolphin shows being dropped from its catalogues, TUI, one of the world’s biggest tour operators, said at the beginning of February.

The ban was put in place as TUI said it could not check conditions at all of its destinations.

Animal protection groups have long criticized conditions at dolphinariums around the world, but particularly in Turkey, Dubai and Egypt.

But when asked by the German news media why trips to dolphin and orca shows are still being advertised and sold on TUI’s UK site, Thomson.co.uk, a spokeswoman said the ban only applied to German customers.

It means TUI branches and websites based outside of Germany will continue to sell trips to the shows.

TUI said it had introduced the German-only ban because the debate around the welfare of the animals was a “very sensitive” issue in Germany.

The spokeswoman said the ban by TUI Germany was in effect immediately.
She added that it was not uncommon for TUI’s national branches to pursue different policies.

One of the main problems with dolphin and orca shows was their reliance on taking dolphin calves from the wild, as they were unable to run successful breeding programmes with captive animals.

Global attention was focused on dolphin welfare last month when 250 dolphins were herded into a Japanese bay for an annual capture and slaughter.