Discuss Carol Ann Duffy's poem "The Dolphins" as a plea to protect animal rights.

Carol Anne Duffy's "The Dolphins" can be seen not just as a plea to protect animal rights but as a direct condemnation of the keeping and training of dolphins for performance.
The first stanza begins by creating a connection between the narrator and the reader, stating that the "[w]orld is what you swim in, or dance, it is simple" (1). Here, the narrator speaks directly to the reader, establishing what a world is as the narrator understands it; it is the place to swim or dance. The second line presents a paradox "We are in our element but we are not free." People often think of dolphins as carefree, happy creatures based on their appearance and actions as they seemingly frolic or jump high out of the water. However, this poem suggests that even though the dolphins are in water, where they belong, the water that they inhabit is not their own. The rest of the stanza goes on to suggest that dolphins in this situation are not even able to think for themselves but that

[t]he other's movement/forms my thoughts. And also mine. There is a man/ and there are hoops. There is a constant flowing guilt. (4-6)

Life has been reduced to a series of directions, and the conflict of guilt for both leading and following. If the dolphin is free, the other dolphin will not know what to do, but if it follows, it is basically helping to indoctrinate the other dolphin into this system of captivity. They teach one another how not to be free. For the dolphin in captivity, there is "no truth in these waters" (7). They "are no longer blessed" (13). Aside from their silver skin, which reminds them of one another, the only other color in the third stanza is "the coloured ball/ we have to balance until the man disappears" (17-18). Life is a series of instructions. The final stanza continues this sad perspective as the narrator states that

[t]here is no hope. We sink/ to the limits of this pool until the whistle blows./ There is a man and our mind knows we will die here. (22-24)

From Duffy's perspective, the dolphin in captivity is no longer alive. Rather, it represents the shadow of a life it once had, forever circling the same path in the water until body is as dead as its soul.