Flipper was a family friendly show but it wasn’t realistic according to the “Scientifically Accurate” series by Animation Domination High-Def. A parody of the Flipper theme song reveals disturbing facts about the animals including their voracious sexual appetites. Male dolphins form rape gangs to isolate females but their sexual shenanigans are not limited to their own species. The cartoon shows a dolphin trainer being hauled off by the police after being busted for having a sex with a dolphin. The animal subsequently commits suicide by ceasing to breath, which take a conscious effort for dolphins. It’s an apparent reference to researcher Margaret Howe Lovatt, who attempted to teach English to a male dolphin named Peter as part of a NASA-funded experiment in the 60s. Lovatt says she allowed Peter to hump her feet and hands because it was more convenient than the hassle of transporting him to the female holding tank.
“I wasn’t uncomfortable with it, as long as it wasn’t rough,” she explained in the BBC documentary The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins. “It would just become part of what was going on, like an itch – just get rid of it, scratch it and move on. And that’s how it seemed to work out. It wasn’t private. People could observe it.
“It wasn’t sexual on my part,” she added. “Sensuous perhaps.”
Lovatt wasn’t arrested but she was publicly embarrassed when the rendezvous was published in Hustler magazine complete with an embellished artist rendering. The funding was pulled in favor of LSD research and due a lack of progress in getting to the dolphin to talk but, honestly, what guy wants to talk after sex?
Freelance photographer Malcolm Brenner had a more intimate relationship with a female dolphin named Dolly at Floridaland park in 1971. He chastised Lovatt for not speaking out sooner and downplaying the sexual encounter.
“There’s something quite transcendental about making love with a dolphin,” said Brenner.
Brenner insists Dolly was the pursuer in the documentary Dolphin Lover. He explained how she maneuvered herself into getting a handjob while being petted. Brenner says he was in a six-month relationship with Dolly and was heartbroken after she too apparently committed suicide following the park’s closing. Fortunately for him, there are other fish in the sea.
