I HAVE just read an article by Heather Wood in today's regarding young Dominic Head and his visit to Dolphin Quest in Bermuda and I would like the opportunity to reply.

As a UK-based dolphin and whale protection charity working world-wide on cetacean issues, we have many requests from parents wishing to take their children to swim with dolphins.

The charity has gone to some considerable effort to do research into this subject over the years in an attempt to clarify the dolphin healing theory and, as such, I have pleasure in attaching a brief extract from a report from Dr. Toni Frohoff concerning this issue.

Dr. Frohoff is an expert in this field and from her report you will see there are indeed many concerns over dolphin welfare, even in so-called licensed establishments. I also attach an excellent piece by Dr. Naomi Rose of the HSUS on DAT programmes, both of which I am sure you will find of interest.

Swimming with dolphins is a very lucrative business for these facilities; when dolphins die they can quite simply be "found" from sources within the US. The Marine Mammal Protection Act does not prohibit the import of dolphins into the US ? however, it does prohibit them for display purposes only.

Many facilities have got around this issue by saying they are using the dolphins for education or therapy ? however, we feel that these facilities like to promote the idea of caring for sick children or research, when in reality, they charge a lot of money to people who are in a vulnerable situation wishing to improve the lives of their children.

As in Dominic's case, however, facilities do from time to time allow a session without charge, which does a lot to enhance their PR appeal.

You may be unaware of the growing concern over swimming with dolphins due to the possibility of cross-species infection. There is much evidence to prove that marine mammals can be infected with or be healthy carriers of zoonotic pathogens, disease agents transmissible from animals to humans.

This is obviously not highlighted by dolphin swim facilities, and if the subject is broached, most will dismiss it as a minimal risk, but if only one person is exposed to this from a swim facility, it is one person too much.

You then have to ask when does a wild dolphin stop being wild? People would not put their child in a cage with a wild bear, so why then do they do this with a dolphin when at heart it is still a wild animal?

Recent incidences of trainers being attacked by whales that have been in their "care" for many years are well documented; you have to ask then if a whale would attack a keeper it has known for many years, and why should it be any different for a person or child they have just encountered.

It is believed that there are injuries sustained by swimmers in swim with dolphin facilities ? therefore I would be interested to know whether Dolphin Quest can give a 100 per cent guarantee in writing that the participants will not open themselves to the risk of injury or disease by participating in their programme? As a charity, we are involved in carrying out emergency work with stranded marine mammals and there are many preventative measures we have to take to ensure no cross-species infection or injury occurs.

Even swimming with dolphins in the wild is shown to disrupt the pods' natural behaviour and wild dolphins have been known to show aggression to swimmers due to the lack of pre-swim education and invasion of their space.

Captures of dolphins from the wild continue world-wide to supply dolphin facilities.

These captures damage not only the animals taken for the facilities, but also the other pod members; for example, in one instance in Taiji, Japan observers witnessed a young dolphin drown while its mother tried to protect it from the fishermen netting the dolphins for capture; the mother was subsequently taken into captivity and the young dolphin's body retained for consumption.

People are quick to blame the Japanese for these types of captures ? however, if someone is patronising a facility that holds dolphins in captivity, they are just as guilty as they are condoning these ongoing captures from the wild to supply facilities world-wide so that they can watch or swim with the dolphins. Therefore, by giving support or money to a marine park or swim programme people are unwittingly paying for dolphins to live a life of misery.

The Marine Connection has, in the past, carried out "playshops" at a world-renowned children's hospital in London and has been given a tour of the "tactile room" which the hospital uses to treat children with autism, learning and other difficulties.

They appear to obtain great results from this, so to my mind instead of putting pressure on one or two parents to raise a lot of money to take one child on a trip to a dolphin "therapy" centre, surely it would be more beneficial to raise money for more of these rooms in major hospitals in cities world-wide.

This would assist a greater number of children on a long-term basis AND allow follow-up work with specialists in this area. People understandably look at Dolphin Therapy and think it is the only way forward ? however, in my opinion this is not only incorrect but gives no follow-up care whatsoever. You may also wish to look into cranial therapy which appears to have excellent effects on some children and may be beneficial to Dominic.

As such, I would be happy for you pass on my details to Dominic's adoptive parents; should they be interested in finding a registered, qualified cranial therapist in their area, I would be delighted to assist.

In closing, I hope you understand that our charity's stance on dolphin-related therapy is in no way meant to belittle or be unsympathetic to the wishes of parents for their child to have a better chance in life, simply to point out the facts and the alternatives to these brave children and their families who have so much to endure on a daily basis.