TV personality Coleen Rooney and her footballer husband Wayne have been slammed by animal right activists.
The husband and wife took a family holiday with their four sons to Dubai where they enjoyed boat trips, meals out and controversially swam with dolphins.
Coleen shared a series of snaps from their time away saying she was “grateful” after staying at a £7,000-per-night hotel.
Although after seeing the 36-year-old with her family in the water with dolphins, an outraged representative from World Animal Protection blasted them for encouraging the practice.
(Image: Instagram)
They argued that the sea mammals they were visiting ate kept in “tiny barren, concrete tanks 200k times smaller than their natural space”.
It seems that many of her 925k Instagram followers also agree that the family shouldn’t have swam with dolphins on their holiday.
Some people were left so outraged that they claimed they were now going to unfollow the star as they felt disappointed in her.
One person commented: “No no no please don’t swim with captive dolphins.”
Someone else said: “Wonderful holidays but Swimming promoting [dolphin emojis] in cages it’s a [red cross emoji]. You should promote the release of all animals in captivity for human amusement. Teaching your boys the good protecting species & keep them in their natural free environment.”
(Image: Instagram)
Another fan wrote: “Swimming with captive dolphins! Shameful! So disappointing! Unfollow”
While another slammed: “Really upsets me! So selfish to see!”
Speaking to the MailOnline, Peter Kemple Hardy the head of campaigns at the non-profit organisation, said millions of animal lovers like Coleen and her family are mislead regarding the dolphins.
He said: “Sadly every year millions of animal lovers like the Rooney family are misled into thinking that captive dolphin experiences are cruelty-free, educational and good for conservation efforts.
“Unfortunately, the industry is profiting billions of dollars from keeping dolphins in tiny barren, concrete tanks 200k times smaller than their natural space.
“Dolphins are wild animals and in their natural environment, swim 100 square kilometres of ocean freely, sometimes much more.”
Peter continued: “We are calling on holiday makers to see dolphins in the wild with a responsible tour operator rather than in captivity and for tour operators like TUI to follow the lead of Expedia, TripAdvisor, Virgin Holidays, British Airways Holidays and Booking.com who have all stopped profiting from dolphin entertainment.”
In the collection of holiday snaps, the family of six were all smiled posing next to a dolphin as they all wore matching yellow life jackets.
Another photo saw her son, Kit, receiving a kiss on the cheek from one as he smiled at the camera.
Coleen captioned the series of images with the words: ‘We had the best Family holiday 2022. Dubai you were fantastic #grateful”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
