| Do you or does your child suffer from cerebral palsy? | | | | In 1997, Nathanson published research in the journal |
| Down syndrome? Autism? A knee injury? General | | | | Anthrozoos, based on his findings from working with |
| ennui? | | | | children with disabilities including Down syndrome, |
| If you do -- and you have a week or two and a few | | | | autism and brain damage. He concluded that two |
| thousand dollars to spare -- a growing and | | | | weeks of "dolphin human therapy" could achieve |
| controversial group of global entrepreneurs claims it | | | | "significantly greater improvement and more cost |
| can help you feel better by putting you in close | | | | effective treatment results" than six months of |
| contact with dolphins. | | | | conventional physical or speech therapy. |
| The strategy is known as dolphin-assisted therapy, | | | | Marino, however, has singled out Nathanson's |
| and the basic idea is that even brief exposure to | | | | research as "thoroughly unconvincing" and |
| these charismatic creatures -- swimming around with | | | | methodologically flawed, lacking adequate control |
| them, petting and kissing them, watching them do | | | | groups and suffering from researcher bias. She and |
| tricks and hearing their clicking calls in tanks, lagoons | | | | other researchers question whether any benefits |
| or the open ocean -- is so uniquely rewarding that it | | | | noted are directly attributable to the dolphins, apart |
| produces benefits all by itself and/or jump-starts a | | | | from the stimulation that a disabled child might |
| patient's receptiveness to more-conventional therapy. | | | | experience from being brought to an exciting new |
| Emory University neuroscientist Lori Marino, who has | | | | place with his parents, showered with attention and |
| spent more than a decade tracking the trend, | | | | taken swimming. |
| estimates there are now more than 100 organizations | | | | "He uses the dolphins like M&Ms," says Smith. "These |
| offering therapy with dolphins. They're found in such | | | | are vulnerable, vulnerable families. They take the child |
| widely scattered places as Florida, Hawaii, Mexico, | | | | to see the dolphins, and it's one of the few times |
| Israel, Australia and Ukraine, and a study cited in | | | | the family is together, and the child is getting all this |
| 2007 by the international Whale and Dolphin | | | | attention, and it becomes wonderful to them, while |
| Conservation Society said a typical charge was | | | | someone is ka'chinging a cash register in the |
| $2,600 for five 40-minute sessions. | | | | background." |
| Their approaches vary widely: At one end are | | | | In an interview, Nathanson defended his studies and |
| relatively conservative nonprofits such as Island | | | | his business enterprise, adding, "Anyone can be a big |
| Dolphin Care, which operates programs for "special | | | | shot, and sit back and talk. It's another thing to hold |
| needs" children out of a $2 million facility in the Florida | | | | a child in your arms." His critics, including Marino, he |
| Keys; its Web site acknowledges that "there is no | | | | charged, are motivated mainly by their opposition to |
| scientific proof that [dolphins] heal nor is there proof | | | | keeping dolphins captive, which he branded "a |
| that they do not heal" and attributes most children's | | | | philosophical argument." |
| progress to being in "an environment that is highly | | | | "Who says being in the wild is a bed of roses?" |
| motivating." | | | | Nathanson demanded. "What about oil spills? I live in |
| At the other end are more imaginative operations, | | | | something called the real world, capisce?" |
| such as the Dolphin Connection, based in the small | | | | 'This is the only place' |
| Hawaiian town of Kealakekua, where Joan Ocean, | | | | Dolphins have fascinated humans since ancient times |
| described on her Web site as a "psychologist, | | | | with their extraordinary grace and intelligence, and |
| shaman, and authority on the subject of Dolphin | | | | those seemingly frozen smiles. Some dolphin-therapy |
| Tel-Empathic Communication," charges $1,995 for | | | | advocates attribute special powers to their sonar, |
| week-long swim-with-dolphin programs offering | | | | which they use to scan the water around them. |
| "cellular communication and healing" and "intergalactic | | | | (Nathanson, who acknowledged there was "no hard |
| journeying." | | | | evidence" of therapeutic benefits from sonar, said he |
| The dolphin-therapy business has been booming, | | | | was nonetheless "perfectly willing to be open to |
| fueled in part by the rapid growth in diagnoses of | | | | possibilities that use of sonar has effects on |
| childhood mental disorders such as autism. Desperate | | | | well-being and even breaking down tumors.") |
| parents in search of cures have flown to the facilities, | | | | On Hawaii's Big Island, Star (formerly Paradise) |
| as if to a seaside Lourdes, when all else has failed. | | | | Newland says swimming with a dolphin healed her |
| The practice, however, is fiercely criticized by | | | | chronic knee pain. She has since co-founded the Sirius |
| researchers and marine mammal conservationists, | | | | Institute, which promotes the "dolphinization of the |
| including the educational anthropologist widely credited | | | | planet" and has plans for a program whereby women |
| with having invented it, retired Florida International | | | | can give birth in the ocean, surrounded by the |
| University researcher Betsy Smith. These critics | | | | charismatic creatures. "The idea is to have a group of |
| charge that it is no more effective and considerably | | | | dolphins and humans born together and living |
| more expensive than skillful conventional treatment, | | | | together for a period of time," says Newland's |
| while potentially harmful to the humans and the | | | | collaborator, Michael Hyson. |
| animals. | | | | More-conventional testimonials abound from parents |
| Smith, who was originally inspired by watching a | | | | who say contact with dolphins helped their children |
| dolphin interact with her mentally disabled brother in | | | | when other treatments failed. |
| the 1970s, offered the therapy free of charge for | | | | Sharon Cox, a retired pharmacist from Oklahoma, |
| more than a decade, before abandoning the work | | | | says her daughter Jacklyn, who had a diagnosis of |
| out of ethical concerns in the 1990s. She now | | | | autism and pervasive developmental delay, had yet |
| maintains that dolphin therapy boils down to "the | | | | to say a word at age 6, when she first brought her |
| exploitation of vulnerable people and vulnerable | | | | to Island Dolphin Care in Key Largo. |
| dolphins." | | | | "I'd been told by doctors and educators that she was |
| "When I started this whole thing, I had no idea what | | | | pretty much a lost cause," Cox said. Yet after just |
| we were unleashing," she said in a telephone | | | | three days with the dolphins, combined with what |
| interview. | | | | she described as extraordinarily skillful attention from |
| Even Ric O'Barry, who won fame in the 1960s as the | | | | the center's therapists, Cox said, her daughter said |
| trainer of TV's Flipper, has since become what he | | | | her first word. She has since returned with Jacklyn |
| describes as a "dolphin abolitionist," opposed to all | | | | every year for the past 12 years and recently |
| forms of dolphin captivity and domination, and leading | | | | moved to Florida to be closer to the dolphins. At 18, |
| efforts to end dolphin hunting and return captive | | | | Jacklyn still has only a limited vocabulary, Cox said. |
| specimens to the wild. | | | | "Each time we came, she'd gain six to 12 months' |
| "It's a fascinating paradox," said Marino, who along | | | | worth of development in two weeks, but then she'd |
| with two colleagues described concerns about | | | | come home and there'd be no follow-up," she said. |
| dolphins in a presentation they made in San Diego | | | | "This is the only place where she gets what she |
| Sunday at the American Association for the | | | | needs." |
| Advancement of Science convention. "People are | | | | Cox disagreed with conservationists who charge that |
| wacky about dolphins, and yet they're becoming the | | | | dolphins are being mistreated. "Hundreds and |
| most abused of animals." | | | | hundreds of people come through here just to swim |
| Dolphin therapy is not regulated by any U.S. | | | | and interact with them one-on-one, and they love |
| government authority overseeing health and safety | | | | the interaction," she said. "They're like a dog. They're |
| standards for either humans or dolphins. | | | | very social. They love greeting people." |
| The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society has | | | | Granted, humans generally treat dolphins much better |
| urged that the therapy be abandoned, citing reports | | | | than animals such as cattle. A major difference, say |
| of serious injuries to people who swim with dolphins, | | | | dolphin advocates, is our determined belief that |
| including bites and broken ribs, and the potential for | | | | dolphins enjoy interacting with people. As Flipper's old |
| disease transmission and stress for captive dolphins | | | | trainer, O'Barry, has pointed out, captive dolphins |
| that are obliged to interact with a continuous stream | | | | perform their antics (including therapy) in return for |
| of strangers and may be scratched by fingernails and | | | | fish -- i.e., to survive. He calls the dolphin's smile |
| jewelry. | | | | "nature's greatest deception." |
| Dueling researchers | | | | Jayne LeFors, a resource management specialist at |
| Marino has published reviews of the scientific | | | | the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
| literature that rigorously dispute claims of any unique | | | | in Hawaii, agreed that people commonly misinterpret |
| therapeutic benefit from contact with dolphins. Even | | | | dolphins' behavior to the dolphins' detriment. |
| so, the Autism Society, the nation's leading | | | | For instance, the dolphins that frequent Kealakekua |
| grass-roots advocacy group for the illness, describes | | | | Bay, where Joan Ocean runs her business, use the |
| dolphin therapy on its Web site, without caveats, as | | | | shallow waters, where predators are easy to spot, |
| one of several treatment approaches that "can help | | | | to sleep and nurse their young. Approaching them |
| by increasing communication skills, developing social | | | | there is like entering their bedroom, she said, and |
| interaction, and providing a sense of accomplishment." | | | | when they leap in the air while being pursued by |
| The Autism Society's Web site notes the research of | | | | swimmers or kayakers, they may be expressing |
| retired Florida International University psychologist | | | | annoyance rather than playfulness. Or they may be |
| David Nathanson, who, it says, "in a number of | | | | genuinely playful and curious to their own detriment, |
| studies... found that children with disabilities learned | | | | like children staying up to watch videos after |
| faster and retained information longer when they | | | | bedtime. "They don't necessarily know what's good |
| were with dolphins, compared to children who learned | | | | for them," said LeFors. |
| in a classroom setting." | | | | As concern has grown about mistreatment of |
| Nathanson, an ebullient entrepreneur, has been selling | | | | dolphins captured for therapy, some people have |
| dolphin-assisted therapy for more than 20 years. His | | | | been seeking substitutes. |
| Web site describes him as head of Dolphin Human | | | | A Southern California outfit called Virtual Dolphin |
| Therapy, "an international consulting company... | | | | Therapy offers clients the experience of lying on |
| dedicated to helping you establish, on site at your | | | | water-filled mattresses and watching images of |
| facility, the highest quality professional rehabilitation | | | | swimming dolphins on an overhead screen. Nathanson, |
| program for children (and some adults) with | | | | in Florida, has been experimenting with a dolphinlike |
| disabilities, depression or other special needs." He | | | | robot. In research published in 2007, he concluded |
| promises prospective clients that DHT can help them | | | | that interaction with the robot "provided the same or |
| "significantly increase revenue" and "receive positive, | | | | more therapeutic benefits as interaction with dolphins, |
| international media attention" while helping children and | | | | without the environmental, administrative/legal and |
| families. In an interview and subsequent e-mails, | | | | practical limitations, including high cost associated with |
| Nathanson said he is planning to open a major new | | | | dolphins." |
| dolphin therapy center in the Cayman Islands this | | | | Even so, Nathanson said, his new facility in the |
| summer. | | | | Cayman Islands will be using live dolphins. |