Over 40 years ago, Dolphin trainer Richard O'Barry watched Kathy, a dolphin in the 1960s television show Flipper, kill herself. Or so he says. "She was really depressed... You have to understand dolphins and whales are not [involuntary] air breathers like we are. Every breath they take is a conscious effort. They can end their life whenever. She swam into my arms and looked me right in the eye, took a breath and didn't take another one. I let her go and she sank straight down on her belly to the bottom of the tank," said O'Barry.

The experience transformed him into an animal rights activist for life and made him a celebrity after his role in "The Cove," an Oscar-winning documentary about it.