wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr) (07/26/90)
From: wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr)
There's an interesting article on page A16 of today's (7/24/90)
New York Times entitled "Navy Suspends Use of Dolphins as Guards
at Base." Opening two paragraphs:
Under legal pressure from animal rights groups, the Navy
has suspended its plan to use bottle-nosed dolphins to guard
a nuclear submarine base.
Through the Navy declines to discuss the classified
program in detail, former Navy trainers of the dolphins say
the animals are being taught to kill enemy divers with
nose-mounted guns and explosives. They say more than a dozen
of the dolphins have been killed or injured in training.
It's an interesting article.
Btw, my current .sig is derived from it.
--
William December Starr <wdstarr@athena.mit.edu>
When they were supposed to ram us with the guns, they either
swam away or put their snouts on our shoulders, very
affectionately. They were the worst at taking orders.
-- Richard Trout, former mammal trainer for the U.S. Navy,
on attempts to train dolphins to perform underwater
guard duty with snout-mounted .45-caliber guns.