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SALFORD CITY MAYOR `REGRETS' CIRCUS AT AJ BELL STADIUM
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Star date: 29th July 2016
CIRCUS MONDAO `REGRET' FROM SALFORD MAYOR
Following the Salford Star article and residents' complaints about Circus Mondao and its animals performing near the AJ Bell Stadium – despite the Council officially banning such practices - Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett has now made a statement…
"We regret what has happened on this occasion" he says "and would like to assure residents that we will renew our commitment to animal welfare with all our partners…"
Full details here…
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It's come too late for residents who oppose the use of animals in circuses but last night Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, issued a kind of apology for allowing this week's Circus Mondao shows to go ahead.
On Tuesday, the Salford Star pointed out that Circus Mondao was about to begin a five day run of performances at the Council's jointly owned AJ Bell Stadium that included the use of live animals – despite Salford City Council passing a motion in 1984 that "No circuses or other commercial undertakings which keep animals for public display or performance be permitted to use land owned by the Council…" (see previous Salford Star article – click here)
The article drew a massive response from residents, including from Swinton authors David and Tracy Holroyd, who wrote a trilogy of classic whistle blowing books on aquatic dolphin circuses, and from organisations like CAPS (Captive Animals' Protection Society), as well as ADI (Animal Defenders International). Last night, the Salford Mayor issued the following statement…
"A policy was passed in the 1980s that does not allow animals to be used in circuses if it is on Salford City Council's land. Although the land near the stadium is not ours, we partly own the stadium and can apply pressure through our role as joint stakeholder. However, in this instance the decision to house the circus was a day to day operational decision. As such neither ourselves or the AJ Bell Stadium Board were not directly consulted on the matter and the process is now well underway.
"Our main concern is the welfare of the animals. We have received confirmation that the circus owners have all the relevant documentation which comply with DEFRA's regulations for possession and care for animals*.
"Although the safety of the animals is assured, our policy position on animals in live performances remains unchanged and have received reassurances from the management of AJ Bell Stadium that it will not happen again.
"We regret what has happened on this occasion and would like to assure residents that we will renew our commitment to animal welfare with all our partners…"
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C. Lord wrote
at 17:18:03 on 27 June 2019 |
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| I have just seen this article and its comments, so my remarks are over 2 years late. If internet chat is to be believed, the revelations of ex dolphin presenter John Dineley are correct.The Backhouse character in The Perfect Pair Dolphin Trilogy books is indeed the former BBC TV presenter Terry Nutkins of Animal Magic and The Really Wild Show fame. In hindsight, Dineley probably wishes he'd kept his mouth shut, as a character said to be him appears in a damning light in the final book of the trilogy - one revelation he didn't rush to make. |
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G. Mansión wrote
at 13:18:26 on 28 April 2018 |
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| Oh, the character 'Backhouse' was indeed that tv celeb Mr Dineley reveals.
But he was indeed an animal tormentor with no interest in the wellbeing of animals or staff of the dolphinarium he 'tried to manage' - as much the same heartless person as the 'Backhouse' character in Ms and Mr Holroyd's books. But not flattering for neither Dineley nor Nutkins. True anyway. |
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K Chaser wrote
at 06:24:52 on 22 March 2018 |
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| Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Dineley are wrong with the "tv celebrity" who's named Backhouse in the books of Mrs. & Mr. Holroyd.
Well, if you don't know the truth, silence is the better option. |
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Tracy J Holroyd wrote
at 20:01:42 on 29 July 2016 |
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| As payback for Salford Council’s decision against Circus Mondao, Petra Jackson, ring mistress, is now attempting to discredit The Perfect Pair Dolphin Trilogy expose by posting a blog written by the notorious pro-captivity activist, John Dineley. Unfortunately, she has purposely omitted the back end of the blog where Mr Dineley names what he considers to be the true identities of the characters featured in the story - including that of a well-known UK celebrity/conservationist. We want all you readers to have the complete story, so are including below a link to Mr Dineley's original post. After all, Mr Dineley's blog gives our expose validity. Please note that we, as authors, will neither confirm nor deny any names bandied by Mr Dineley - but we urge everyone to read the complete blog as we think it will be of great interest.
http://moonbeamskissedthesea.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-perfect-pair-enchanted-mirror-or.html
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David C Holroyd wrote
at 20:01:10 on 29 July 2016 |
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| And so it begins … Circus Mondao gets down and dirty with those who oppose it. Typical of the captive industry. Are these the kind of people you want entertaining your kids? As for the Dineley blog, this was the authors’ posted reply:
Some of you may recall a poisonous blog post written by John Dineley, the pro-captivity ex-marine mammal presenter/trainer. It featured on Mr Dineley’s blog, And the Moonbeams Kissed the Sea, and was promoted by the pro-circus blog, Astley’s Legacy; blogs that enable the opinionated Dineley to launch written attacks – without redress - on anyone and everyone who disagrees with his twisted philosophy on animal captivity.
The offending post was dated 10th October 2013. However, since then it has been changed on at least three different occasions, with material edited in and – even more intriguingly – material edited out.
As authors of the award-winning The Perfect Pair Dolphin Trilogy, we have had to walk a legal tightrope in bringing our story to the public, something that the vindictive Mr Dineley was all too aware of and used to his advantage. Thankfully, our gruelling exposé is now finished, so we no longer have to suffer in silence.
But before we address Mr Dineley’s post, we would like to cut through the bull that he’s been feeding the public for the past few decades.
Who is John Dineley?
He describes himself as an ex-sea lion/dolphin trainer from the 1970s – an expert, in fact. But in truth, he is anything but.
Whilst researching The Perfect Pair Dolphin Trilogy, we found nothing to suggest that Mr Dineley was ever recognised by his peers as a true trainer. His claim to fame appears to come solely from the vast amount of literature that he himself has posted. In fact, according to his CV, he spent much of his career moving from one training establishment to another - hardly a glowing recommendation for his self-publicised training talent. So please don’t be fooled by the propaganda of this manipulative man; his only attribute seems to be the size of his ego.
We will now address the offending blog itself, ever mindful of the legal constraints that we, as authors, still have to endure – meaning that we can neither confirm nor deny the names of the people and places so freely bandied about by Mr Dineley. However, what we can say is that Dineley clearly recognised the story chronicled in The Perfect Pair Dolphin Trilogy to be true and, when suggesting names, made care to omit those contemporaries with whom he still maintains contact.
This pro-captivity activist cynically referred to Capello as a man who worked for ‘a limited time as a dolphin presenter and trainer’, conveniently choosing to overlook Capello’s considerable achievements. First, Duchess and Herb’e - The Perfect Pair - two dolphins who worked in perfect unison, and the only dolphins in Europe to perform the legendary shadow ballet. Second, the miniature super team, Baby and Scouse - an illegally-imported infant and a dolphin blinded in captivity.
He also neglected to mention that the lords of the captive industry so revered Capello’s talent that, in an attempt to lure him out of his self-imposed retirement, they actually offered him Europe’s top training position.
However, Dineley did fantasize loudly about training methods, as he attempted to discredit Capello’s success with an accusation of cruelty - a ludicrous claim, as it was well known that Capello’s beloved Atlanteans would work only for him. Dineley pontificated extensively about ‘shake sessions’ - a training practice of which the world would have remained blissfully unaware had Capello himself not exposed it in our first book. Unbelievably, Dineley tried to attribute these shake sessions solely to Capello – something he later retracted.
Dineley, this self-professed dolphin expert, explained in vivid detail just what he believed a shake session to entail: ‘… locking animals in holding pens and beating metal polls [sic] on the pool floor and sides and shouting at the animals to cause them fear and distress.’ A truly horrendous description – and certainly not the shake session described in The Perfect Pair: The Enchanted Mirror.
Mr Dineley’s version of a shake session was infinitely more sinister, albeit described by a man who constantly claimed never to have witnessed this type of conditioning. Hard to believe when his general manager’s use of the stick is well-documented in forums throughout the internet. So ask yourself: during his training days, did Mr Dineley conveniently walk around with his eyes closed? Or is he doggedly maintaining the vow of silence that the captive industry demands of all its employees?
The truth is that this despicable blog was written for two purposes: one, to destroy the character of a man once hailed as Europe’s finest trainer; two, to defend and justify the keeping of captive cetaceans by discrediting the industry’s main whistle-blower.
John Dineley’s apparent hatred of everything Capello even manifested itself as a spiteful comment about Capello’s mentor, whom Dineley described as ‘… a former travelling salesman who stumbled into dolphin training …’.
And so to finish, this is our verdict. We believe that John Dineley is quite simply a non-entity with delusions of grandeur; a failed trainer who was forced to live in the shadow of the giant that was Capello. His vicious blog is nothing more than the result of decades of envy and animosity - all heaped against a man whom he met for barely 15 minutes.
‘Well, Mr Dineley, your worst nightmare has returned. Capello blew you away over 40 years ago … and now he’s back to do it all over again.’
David C Holroyd and Tracy J Holroyd
Members of the Society of Authors
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joseph.oneill wrote
at 16:23:42 on 29 July 2016 |
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| When I was in Council you were sent documents highlighting events in your ward and did you object . Obvious the Labour councillors took little time to read the brief, |
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petra jackson wrote
at 16:23:11 on 29 July 2016 |
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| 'The Perfect Pair: The Enchanted Mirror' or David Holroyd's selective memory
Knowsley Safari Park (aka Hendle Safari Park) 1973. Copyright John Dineley
'The Perfect Pair: The Enchanted Mirror'
or David Holroyd's selective memory
The sad and shameful truth is it was Holroyd himself used 'shake ups'. 'Shake-ups': a training method that no reputable marine animal trainer would have used then or now.
David Holroyd worked as a dolphin trainer from two years from early 1972 for ETAM (the leisure division of Truste House Forte) at Rhyl and Knowsley Dolphinariums. Truste House Forte at this time also own Belle Vue Zoo and later a further dolphinarium at Woburn Safari Park.
In 2012, he published a book with his sister Tracy called: 'The Perfect Pair: The Enchanted Mirror'. The book is part of a trilogy with the second volume due for publication in Feburary 2014. The book(s) are described as "faction...because of legal ramifications", they recount Holroyd's limited time as a dolphin presenter and trainer.
How do I know about this man and his time as a dolphin trainer? Simply because I was a contemporary of Holroyd and worked with some of his surviving dolphins (Duchess and Scouse) at Knowsley Dolphinarium.
Holroyd's training methods were infamous and well known to colleagues. Further, I also was able to confirm this in reading his animal training logs for all animals he oversaw during his employment at both Rhyl and Knowsley dolphinariums.
To this end, I find it no surprised that Holroyd hides behind the persona of David Capello; more so when talking about the appalling 'training method' he refers to in the book as a 'shake session' or as he refers to them in training logs as 'shake ups'.
Shake up involved locking animals in holding pens and beating metal polls on the pool floor and sides and shouting at the animals to cause them fear and distress.
Holroyd claims in the book (Chapter 37, pages 94-95) this was taught to him by 'head trainer' Gerry Mansell (aka Garry Marshal). This maybe the case - although having worked with Marshall and his contemporaries, I was not familiar with this technique and only became aware of it being used exclusively by David Holroyd; this via word of mouth from other trainers and later (as stated above) by reading the animal care and training log books written by Holroyd and archived at Knowsley Safari Park Dolphinarium.
In fact, a colleague of mine confirmed he had seen Holroyd use this method. To this end, my colleague refused to have anything to do with such techniques, as would any professional trainer now or indeed in the past.
The sad and shameful truth is it was Holroyd himself who systematically used 'shake ups'.
Perhaps Holroyd thinks it is safe for him to write a book with such a selective memory some forty-years later. Therefore, it is a good job some of us who knew him and his dolphin training methods during the early 1970s are still working in zoo animal welfare and are around to put the record straight.
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Jane wrote
at 11:52:05 on 29 July 2016 |
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| Good outcome Great news, This should be so straight forward about animals in the entertainment industry and its Not, who cares if the animal has green grass and well looked after that seems to be the every circus excuse and quite frankly it is Not the point, Its doing tricks, lets see the circus as a great show where people are doing a great performance without the use of animals |
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Mary Ferrer wrote
at 11:52:01 on 29 July 2016 |
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| So,the mayor had no idea about the circus. First would they not have to applied for a license. They would have had to inform council officers,they in turn would notify the ward councillors.Take it the land in question is owned by Peel. So they didn't inform the board of the stadium. Now either the mayor and co are thick. Or they think WE are thick. What does he mean "A DAD by DAY OPERATION" Well, he's not been in position as mayor that long,but start as you mean to go on Mr mayor. " MUSHROOMS" Cover them in sh_t and keep them in the dark. Good job we have the Star shining a light on the day by day OPERATIONS of Salford council |
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Tracy J Holroyd wrote
at 10:05:27 on 29 July 2016 |
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| This is a superb outcome. Ideally, I would have liked to see the circus closed and evicted immediately as the DEFRA licence was issued with conditions attached. However, this is the next best thing. Thank you Salford Star for bringing this to our attention. Thank you Councillor Derek Antrobus for pursuing the issue on our behalf and thank you to our new Mayor Paul Dennett for being brave enough to deal openly with the problem. As co-author of the award-winning The Perfect Pair Dolphin Trilogy, I know all too well that whilst things may appear glamorous and exciting during the show, it can be a very different story once the lights go down and the crowd goes home.Thank you again to everybody who took time to bring this issue to public notice. |
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