guest blogger, Shelley Anne Guinn, Co-founder of the Facebook page Swim for Freedom - Marine Mammal Advocates, reviews the perfect pair: shards from the Mirror

The Perfect Pair: Shards from the Mirror – a story that will forever change hearts and minds.

When reading the first two books of The Perfect Pair Dolphin Trilogy, you will experience a range of emotions:  sadness, anger, frustration, sympathy and complete and utter disgust. You will even learn something about the dolphin psyche.

But nothing will prepare you for this final instalment - it will tear out your heart and leave you emotionally spent.

This ex-dolphin trainer’s mind-blowing testimony is one of the best anti-captivity books I have ever read. It takes you on a journey, from the excitement of a young man securing his dream job to his life of inner turmoil and self-destruction. The reader experiences his battle to protect his beloved dolphins against sickness, injury, death and even management sabotage.

In a short time he comes to understand just how ugly the captive cetacean business really is, and how nothing, but nothing, is allowed to interfere with company profits.
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No matter what, the show must go on!

So this broken trainer makes the decision to walk away from the industry he once loved, never to return.
I stand in awe of David Capello's courage, dedication and determination. The majesty of his love and his ability to connect so deeply with his dolphins is nothing short of incredible. One can only imagine what mental and emotional anguish he must have suffered when he chose to leave his beloved dolphins behind, knowing what their fate would ultimately be. This trainer, like many before him, realised that he could no longer be a part of this vile business.

Once you have read the final book of the trilogy, you will fully understand why this story has been subject to so much resistance. Those big businessmen behind the captive industry are fully exposed for the greedy, repulsive, negligent ‘PARASITES IN SUITS’ that they truly are - so much so that the names of people and places have had to be changed. However, as the authors have pointed out, the names of the dolphins and other animals remain unchanged.

Bravo to David and Tracy Holroyd for having the passion, courage and determination to push this story out! Books such as these, along with the testament of ex-trainers, graphically illustrate what happens behind closed doors. Exposing the dirty rotten secrets of the captive industry is key to emptying the tanks and destroying the business of cetacean exploitation throughout the world, whether it be in the form of a dolphinarium or a ‘swim with’ programme.

I am an avid cetacean advocate, and love all animals. It's my hope and dream that one day this ugly industry will be a thing of the past, and that no more dolphins and whales will be forced to endure the pain and suffering of being ripped from their families to be locked away in tiny concrete pools, then forced to perform tricks to survive.

The captive industry claims to educate – but there is nothing educational about captivity. Real education is teaching people - and especially children - that captivity is wrong. Real education is seeing these majestic, sentient beings in their natural habitat, not visiting them in a dolphinarium where nothing is natural.
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I pray that all cetaceans be left to live their life free in the ocean as God intended. I, for one, will continue to fight on their behalf, and do whatever possible to save them.
 
Shelley Anne Guinn
Co-founder of the Facebook page Swim for Freedom - Marine Mammal Advocates