Dolphin Lover – Disturbing documentary about a man’s sexual affair with a dolphin

Photo courtesy of Malcolm J. Brenner                         Dolly and Brenner

“It’s like we stopped being two individual creatures and became one creature that was making love with itself.”—Malcolm J. Brenner.

Last week, the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, showcased films for filmmakers by filmmakers.

The shortest film , Dolphin Lover -15 minutes in length- was one of the festival’s most controversial films.

In the 1970’s, an 18 year old Michael J. Brenner “befriended” Dolly, a bottlenose dolphin at Floridaland (defunct theme park) while he was there as a photographer for an author who was writing about the park.  Dolly was trained to entertain passengers of a riverboat.

The film opens with footage from Floridaland,  When he met Dolly, he gave her a belly rub in the water, but says she wanted more. He felt Dolly was courting him.

Brenner says he and Dolly had an intimate affair which included engaging in intercourse with the aquatic mammal. He claims Dolly pursued him and he resisted at first.  He claims he wasn’t interested. The author/photographer told the New York Daily News he thought about it and asked himself, “If this was a woman, would I come up with these rationalizations and excuses? There’s something quite transcendental about making love with a dolphin.”

In 2011 Brenner wrote a novel, Wet Goddess, based on his relationship with Dolly, and claims Dolly was “rough with him at first but became more gentle during their nine-month affair.”

 Dolphin Lover, the short film shows Brenner telling his story of how he fell in love and had sex with Dolly.

If having sex with an animal isn’t disturbing enough, what’s as disturbing is a man’s sexual attraction to an animal. Unfortunately, Dolly wasn’t the only animal to whom he was attracted.

He tried having sex with his family’s poodle.  According to Brenner,  he considers what he did to be zoophilia and not bestiality. These two terms have been and are used interchangably.  The distinction between the two is zoophiles form an emotional or sexual attachment to animals while bestialists rape or abuse animals.

Brenner claims he’s interested in “tender and caring sex- not just getting it on.” 

Kareem Tabsch and Joey Daoud, documentary filmmakers, approached Brenner after reading his novel.

It is a short but very unsettling piece of film.  Animal rights activists and sex experts share the same conclusions that most people feel.  It is perversion and animal cruelty showcased by a man who clearly thinks having “tender and caring sex” is not out of the norm.

Brenner claims Dolly came on to him in a most sexually provocative way against his foot.  While his reference to Dolly’s actions seem disturbing, dolphins have directed thrusting behaviors toward human swimmers. Female and male dolphins engage in this behavior. Mounting behavior in dolphins has been found to be widepread among each other but they have also approached humans in the same way.  It is a form of socio-sexual behavior.

Brenner’s affinity and romanticism with a dolphin led him to intellectualize Dolly’s behavior as not only normal but she was looking for gratification from him in the form of an “affair,”  in my opinion.

People involved with having sex with animals is a mystery and troubling to the vast majority of the public. With zoophilia or bestiality, sex can and does occur.  An animal doesn’t have the ability to give consent to these acts. Zoophiles will disagree with this assessment saying they would never force an animal to have sex.

However you look at it, a human is having sex with an animal.  I will never wrap my head around this concept and have zero interest trying to do so. For me, it’s abnormal, cruel and also illegal.

Brenner’s relationship ended when Floridaland was closed and Dolly was shipped to an oceanarium in Mississippi. Brenner never visited her. She died nine months later. Brenner believes she died of a broken heart.

According to Brenner’s blog, there is interest in doing a full-length documentary on his sexual affair with Dolly.  If this happens, let’s hope they delve into the psychology behind this disturbing topic.

Have a story, please email me at tevangelistaepp@yahoo. Like my tv page at https://www.facebook.com/ACloseUpLookAtAnimalWelfareIssues.