Ric O'Barry

Richard "Ric" O'Barry
Ric O'Barry, 2009
Born
Richard Barry O'Feldman [1]

(1939-10-14) October 14, 1939 (age 85)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Founder and director of Ric O'Barry's Dolphin Project
Known forAnimal rights activist and former animal trainer
Websitewww.dolphinproject.com

Richard "Ric" O'Barry (born Richard Barry O'Feldman; October 14, 1939)[1][2][3] is an American animal rights activist and former animal trainer who was first recognized in the 1960s for capturing and training the five dolphins that were used in the TV series Flipper. O'Barry transitioned from training dolphins to instead advocating against industries that keep dolphins in captivity, after one of the Flipper dolphins died.[4] In 1996, a dolphin was seized from the Sugarloaf Dolphin Sanctuary, a corporation O'Barry worked for, for violating the Animal Welfare Act of 1966.[5] In 1999, he was fined for violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act as the result of illegally releasing two dolphins that were not able to survive in the wild.[6] The dolphins sustained life-threatening injuries.

In 1970, O'Barry founded the Dolphin Project, a group that aims to educate the public about captivity and, where feasible, free captive dolphins. He was featured in the Academy Award-winning film The Cove (2009), which used covert techniques to expose the yearly dolphin drive hunting that goes on in Taiji, Japan.[citation needed]

  1. ^ a b Profile, earthisland.org. Accessed January 5, 2024.
  2. ^ O'Barry, Richard; Keith Coulbourn (1988). Behind the Dolphin Smile. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. ISBN 0-912697-79-2.
  3. ^ "The Legacy of Flipper". NYMag.com. Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  4. ^ "Interviews - Richard O'Barry | A Whale Of A Business | FRONTLINE". PBS. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  5. ^ Dolphin Removed From Unsafe Conditions at Sugarloaf, publicaffairs.noaa.gov. Accessed January 4, 2024.
  6. ^ In the Matter of: Richard O'Barry, Lloyd A. Good, III, Sugarloaf Dolphin Sanctuary, Inc., The Dolphin Project, Inc., Respondents, animallaw.info. Accessed January 4, 2024.