If I ever had the chance to swimm with a dolphin would jump at it.

So far I have not had the chance.

I see them wild in Wales when sea trout fishing in estuaries, but always at a distance

Nicholas Iles, Oswestry, Shropshire

As the founder of the Cetacean Studies Institute and long-time researcher into the effectiveness of Dolphin-Assisted Therapy (DAT), I feel compelled to comment.

Dolphin-Assisted Therapy is the presence of dolphins as assistants to human therapists who are highly trained and competent therapists, working with families to achieve important outcomes.

The latest "scientific research into the effectiveness of DAT" is, in fact, a review of the research of others. It is a review, not research.

In our many years of studying DAT, visiting facilities, interviewing therapists, patients, family members, trainers, doctors, medical technicians, as well as filming dozens of sessions, collecting patient stories, and operating a small Wellness Program ourselves, we have seen many wonderful results.

Literally thousands of families have had their entire family history changed for the better through the effectiveness of good DAT programs.

DAT can be done well. The WDCS has been misinformed.

Scott Taylor, Coffs Harbour, Australia

Instead of banning (again) something which may have benefit, why not just strictly regulate the prices so that those in it for the money would drop away over time, and leave any more altruistic practitioners a clear field to help others if they can? Aside from inhibiting entrepeneurs, regulating prices would limit the "fashion" and "star" effects, reduce excessive publicity, and de-globalize the dolphin industry. We don´t even know yet if dolphins bred in captivity have the same abilities as wild ones are reputed to have, so it is certainly very short-sighted to allow the build-up of an increasing industry which might end up eradicating non-domesticated dolphins.

Lissa Dells, Malaga, Spain

Why create false encounters in the sea and stress wild dolphins when similar results can be achieved with horses in a safe land-base session?

EAGALA is leading on standard setting for this type of therapeutic work in behavioural and stress / lifestyle related diseases. It costs a lot less too. Before the end of the day we would all benefit from getting a lot closer to nature and 'other than human' beings to gain some new perspectives on the environment we are creating around us.

Liz Morrison , Guildford, Surrey

As usual, animals are always explioted for the so call medical benefit for humans. Let us eat properly, live our lives the way we are supposed to and leave the animals alone. We are created to be in charge of animals not bully them. We really dont deserve any of these beautiful animals of the land, sea and air. There are a lot of people who pretend to love animals but are actually abusing them for their financial gain. One good example is 'whale watching' in Australia where these business crooks not just disturb the whales but also cheat the tourist. Find something else to do!

Virginia, Brisbane, Australia

Dolphins should be left in the wild and experienced in the wild....captivity is cruel and having people shoving, poking and screaming is NOT therapy....
Dolphin Eco-Therapy on the other hand with wild animals gives them the choice...either they want to or they dont. if not thats okay too, after all it is their own free will. For the Love of Dolphins...

Angie Gullan, Ponta do ouro, Mozambique

We are currently at Dolphin Therapy in Florida at the moment which is also a public Dolphin swim facility with Therapy classes part of the day, so the Dolphins would be here anyway for public swims.
We have seen none of the reported incidents and as far as I know the Dolphins are bred here and are well treated.
This is a not for profit organisation and spare funds go to help less fortunate groups.
We and others come back time and again as part of our annual holiday because our children seem to get benefit from the therapy, half of which is done in a classroom, but most of all because our children seems to enjoy it.
Nobody says the dolphins can heal the children it is just a therapy which Dolphin swims are a part of.
We would not do it if we thought the Dolphins were in any distress.

William Sloan, Huddersfield, W Yorks

So: there is no porpoise in swimming with dolphins: what about swimming with elasmobranches? Could there be a ray of hope there??

Edwin, Glasgow,

So there is no porpoise to swimming with dolphins...

Ed, Glasgow,

"It seems rather bizarre that people should have tried a therapy of this sort in the first place. What evidence was EVER cited in favor of dolphin therapy, beyond an essentially magical belief that contact with such beautiful and impressive animals must have healing powers?"

Precisely. Can you imagine a market for warthog assisted therapy (WAT) anytime soon?

Homer, London,

The arrogence of us humans is sickening. We'll use, torture and destroy everyone and everything for our pleasure. We'll eat every creature that walks, crawls, swims or flies. Hey people, they are all Gods creature try a little respect and compassion. We can't keep trading their torture for our joy.

Arly, East Meadow, N.Y. USA

Some commentors are likely to dismiss concern about dolphin assisted therapy because of a failure to take seriously the harm to people or dolphins. I am a marine mammalogist and have studied the validity of dolphin-assisted therapy for many years. The article above is correct in citing the substantial evidence for harm to people.

And, if you tend to reject the notion that this practice is not especially harmful to dolphins, I invite you to please go to the following website and you will see an example of the horrific dolphin drives and wild captures that are behind many of these swim and therapy programs. If you want to know where most of these "therapy dolphins" come from, please see:

actfordolphins.org

Thank you.

Lori Marino, Ph.D.
Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia

Lori Marino, Atlanta, Georgia

Humans are much more beautiful than dolphins; I have found in my time here amongst you that whilst the dolphins have the 2nd largest EQ of 5.1 following that of humans at 7. The most interesting aspect of this relationship is only apparent during Human/dolphin interaction; I guess many humans would find it unbelievable but the dolphins see humans as dolphins that are ill... It's very complicated but we had a similar situation on my planet... eventually following adaptation of our brain waves we were able to understand lower creatures and finally realized a lot more than we were ever hoping for...

ABI, Fair city,

Bill Bailey would be proud of this article :-)

Kate Anderson, Sydney,

It seems rather bizarre that people should have tried a therapy of this sort in the first place. What evidence was EVER cited in favor of dolphin therapy, beyond an essentially magical belief that contact with such beautiful and impressive animals must have healing powers?

D.L. Anderson, Crossett, AR/U.S.A.

Despite my considerable reservations as to the actual medical benefits of this type of therapy, I'm sort of willing to just not worry too much about it.

I'm more genuinely worried about what a bunch of grinches the WDCS are. .. come on it's a few dolphins.

MGB, Carmarthen, Wales