Mammal handler Shawn McDonald guides a bottlenose dolphin to a halt on a beaching tray after it jumped out of a holding pool. Once in the tray, the dolphin can be moved to a speedboat for deployment in the ocean. Don Bartletti / Los Angeles TimesNavy's Plan To Deploy Dolphins Roils Waters -- L.A. Times
The Navy wants to use dolphins and sea lions to protect a Puget Sound submarine fleet, as the mammals do in Georgia. But opponents say the waters off Washington state are too cold for the animals.
Reporting from Silverdale, Wash. -- Some of the nation's most sophisticated military submarines are based in the chilly waters of Puget Sound, an inlet of islands, peninsulas and harbors that is worryingly vulnerable to terrorist attack from a furtive diver or brazen suicide swimmer.
But the Navy's plan to use a squadron of highly trained dolphins and sea lions to patrol and protect the submarine fleet is running into opposition from those who fear the glacier-fed waters of the sound are too frigid for warm-water dolphins.
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My Comment: I can see these same protesters arguing that dogs used by the military are being put in dangerous and hostile situations .... and they should be limited to certain operations or zones of combat. Sigh .... implying that the handlers have no feelings for the animals that are in their care.
Like the handlers for the dolphins, almost all humans are sensitive to animals that are in their care. If there is a problem, I doubt that they will keep their protestations quiet.