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[spacey music playing]
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[man 1] To be the best dolphin trainer,
you have to be an obsessive person.
Competitive.
You have to have a bigger ego than ordinary people.
[man 2] José Luis liked to win.
To be the best at everything.
But careful.
It's a job where people can get jealous.
You don't know when you might get stabbed in the back.
[music intensifies]
[man 3] It would be extremely unfair for anyone to draw conclusions
about who José Luis Barbero was by watching a video.
Those fateful 99 seconds.
The worst seconds of a coach's life.
[gentle ethereal music plays]
A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY
[dolphins chirping]
[man] The dolphin.
VOICE OF JOSÉ LUIS BARBERO
Revered by our ancestors.
In these times, these beings are victims of man's ambition and carelessness.
But, in spite of everything,
the dolphin continues to trust and show its fellowship with man.
I've learned so much from dolphins.
They know us much better than we know them.
I work with dolphins.
[man] José Luis always understood the animals.
He motivated them.
The animal would wait at the door for him.
You would think, "Why doesn't the dolphin follow me?"
BARBERO'S ASSISTANT TRAINER
I learned everything from José Luis.
José Luis was the best.
I was his assistant.
[dreamy piano music plays]
[Daniel] It's one of the most beautiful jobs.
Sometimes, it's better to work with animals.
Think about what happened.
A dolphin wouldn't harm anyone.
There's no evil.
[José Luis] Every training session is psychological.
It's similar to a teacher and a student.
You know the characteristics each one has, and the best way to use them.
This is the same.
[whistle blows]
[ethereal music plays]
[José Luis spits and chuckles]
[man] For José Luis, the key is to use a consistent language.
[dolphin clicking]
[man] A common language.
[whistle blows]
The animals had no doubts
what José Luis expected from them.
[José Luis] Now, go!
[ethereal music intensifies]
Now, go!
[audience claps rhythmically]
Go!
[clapping increases tempo]
[audience exclaims]
[dialogue imperceptible]
Go, go!
[exclaims, blows whistle]
[cheering]
-[José Luis] That's it. -[Javier] Come on, baldy.
[mouse and keyboard clicking]
[radio host] José Luis has been working with dolphins for about 30 years.
[José Luis] Yes, I started at Marineland in Majorca.
[hypnotic guitar music plays]
[mouse clicking]
[José Luis] That was my start.
Well, I opened the dolphinarium in Madrid,
and another one here in Costa Brava.
Actually, a few of them.
José Luis here. Hello, Spain!
[people exclaiming]
[José Luis] My girl is so beautiful!
[Daniel laughs]
Stop messing around, man.
[José Luis, on radio] Now I'm helping to open a dolphinarium in the US.
[news anchor 1] The world's largest aquarium opens
tomorrow in Atlanta.
The Georgia Aquarium will be home to more than 100,000 sea creatures.
[news anchor 2] Home Depot co-founder, Bernie Marcus, donated $250 million.
This is now the world's largest aquarium.
Hey, Matt, it looks incredible.
Oh, Katie, it is more than incredible, it's extraordinary.
[splashing]
[man] In, uh, January of 2015,
we wanted to improve the dolphin show.
And Mr. Barbero was the best available person…
FORMER CEO OF GEORGIA AQUARIUM
…that we knew globally at the time.
Georgia Aquarium makes José Luis an offer he can't refuse.
[Daniel] When he told me he was going to the Georgia Aquarium,
that he was offered vice president,
it's… unbelievable.
For us as colleagues, we took pride in saying,
"Look where José Luis is now."
[Javier] José Luis was already in his late fifties.
Almost 60.
It was the culmination of his career.
José Luis was euphoric.
[Daniel] But be careful.
Because…
you never know what'll happen.
[announcer] It's Channel 2 Action News at 5:00 p.m.
Coverage you can count on.
[news anchor] Screaming, kicking and hitting dolphins.
[reporter] Spanish animal rights group SOS Delfines posted the undercover video,
which it claims shows trainer José Luis Barbero
among those engaged in the aggressive training techniques.
…a grainy viral video
of alleged dolphin abuse…
[anchor 2] He kicked dolphins in the zoo.
-[anchor 3] Scolded and kicked dolphins… He was a dolphin trainer known as…
Justin, I don't know a whole lot about dolphin training,
but you'd think that one rule would be don't kick the dolphins.
We tracked down the people who shot that video in Spain.
If they really have concern for their animals,
they may be thinking twice about hiring someone like this.
-[man] Carla, take three. -[claps]
PRESIDENT OF FAADA / SOS DELFINES
[Carla] It was our responsibility to publish some images
to show what was really happening.
Because the public isn't aware of what goes on behind the scenes
of the show they're watching, right?
Music, fun, and dolphins smiling.
-[whistle blows shrilly] -Hey!
[Carla] The fact that the dolphins were trained in such an aggressive, violent way
shocked and hurt me.
[speaks indistinctly]
[Carla] José Luis Barbero was responsible.
Those events took place under his watch.
…shows aggressive training techniques by an incoming…
[Javier] It had a big impact in the US.
And you realize that it can have very serious consequences.
[dog barks in distance]
[woman] When the videos came out here, José Luis was in Georgia.
WIFE
He called and said, "They ruined my life."
KILLER TRAINERS
I HOPE SOMETHING HORRIBLE HAPPENS TO YOU
IT ISN'T HIS MOM'S FAULT SHE GAVE BIRTH TO A BASTARD!
[Mari] I had never seen people get as angry as they got with José Luis.
They didn't know him.
YOU DESERVE TO BE SHOT IN THE FUCKING HEAD
It was a crusade against José Luis.
They all had something to say.
They criticized him but knew nothing.
[gentle mellow music plays]
[José Luis on radio] It's carnage. What they've done to me is unforgivable.
In my 35-year career, I have never mistreated an animal.
Not in Marineland,
nor, as far as I know, in any dolphinarium in the world,
are dolphins mistreated
as the anti-dolphinarium organizations want to make it appear.
[radio host] It was pure fury. There was hatred and rage
that I've rarely seen afterwards, and we've seen a lot of things on Twitter.
He must have felt embarrassed,
humiliated…
RÀDIO CALVIÀ JOURNALIST
…frustrated.
There are a lot of feelings that are difficult to manage.
I saw that he was feeling so sad.
I told him,
"Pack your bags and come to Spain."
[boarding bell rings]
[man on intercom] Please remain seated, with your seatbelt securely…
[Mari] When José Luis came home,
he tried playing the video frame by frame.
-[José Luis] You're lazy! You're lazy! -[dolphins squeak on video]
[whistle blows]
[Mari] He saw things that don't match up.
The fucking ball!
Hey! Lazy girl!
[Javier] The video is a few seconds long.
[whistle blows]
[Javier] Linking some very ugly clips one after another,
and the result is a very violent video.
It's not the norm for José Luis Barbero.
[Mari] So I said, "Get a lawyer and let's see."
So we hired Mateo.
[man speaks indistinctly on video]
Like any other client who enters the office,
I tell him that the first thing I do
is to investigate the truth.
If it's true, then I move on and defend him.
The conclusion we reached was that the videos were tampered with.
We already have the evidence.
Experts proving that the video's edited.
It's a botched job, according to the technicians.
Even I am not 100% sure that I'm the person seen there, but…
[continues inaudibly]
[Mari] If you've done nothing wrong, you don't stop.
He was like that.
-They suspected there was manipulation. -Yes.
Channel 2's Jessica Jaglois is live at the aquarium,
where the CEO told her today
he believes the video is a fake.
He's handed it over to forensic experts
who will determine the veracity of the video,
and he says if they prove the video is real,
their new VP will be fired immediately.
We want José Barbero to get a fair treatment,
a fair judgment, and we will stand behind him
until this video is proven to be true or false.
[Mike] We didn't go deeply into his background
to see how true this could've been.
But no one, no one could survive for 35 years in the business
if he treated any of these animals in that particular way.
[tense music plays]
[reporter] Aquarium leaders confirmed it hired consultants to analyze the video
and see if it's authentic.
The aquarium has also hired a former FBI investigator
who traveled to Spain as a part of his investigation.
[Javier] Georgia Aquarium immediately starts an investigation,
sends a number of people here to Majorca.
They then decide to interview all the members of the team, one by one.
It's an interview with law enforcement.
They ask us to interpret what we see in that video.
I was not completely truthful in that situation,
as you can understand.
José Luis is-- was my friend, and…
I took the heat
out of many of the situations recorded.
[Carla] We received a call from some people
hired by the Georgia Aquarium.
They said they'd come from Majorca,
and they'd done an exhaustive investigation
because they intended to hire José Luis Barbero,
and they had to know if the information they received was real.
[tense music playing]
Initially, the conversation had an…
intimidating or threatening tone.
They had brought in an expert report,
stating that, "This does not correspond to that,
this is not real, this material has been manipulated."
[tape player clicks]
[man on tape] The first scene of the video is shot from about 200 meters away,
from an apartment outside the park,
where you have to go over the park, past two waterfalls,
past where the penguins are,
and then into the stadium and down.
The sound does not travel that far.
We went up onto that building, you cannot hear words
from that place in the building.
[dolphins squeaking]
[man] This video is manipulated.
Somebody that created it did things to distort it.
[Carla on tape] This video, we made it ourselves. And…
[in Catalan] How do you say it?
[in English] An intern? And yeah, the audio doesn't correspond.
I accept. It's cut-- cut and paste.
That-- If that's manipulation, then, yeah.
[tape recorder clicks]
[interviewer] Important question, did you manipulate the video?
The video was not manipulated at any time,
it was simply edited.
[gentle melancholic music plays]
[Carla] Around November of 2014, we received a package from our source
with several hours of video footage.
They said that they had witnessed violent and aggressive behavior
towards the animals in Marineland Majorca.
What we did was edit those images into a short video.
What we told them
is that we agreed to maintain the anonymity of the source at all times.
THE PEOPLE WHO RECORDED THE VIDEO
HAVE REMAINED ANONYMOUS FOR SEVEN YEARS
I-- I think if-- if the people who made this video,
aren't willing to talk about the video,
that would seem to me to indicate the video was doctored.
Otherwise, they'd say, "Look, talk to me, I did the video."
"It's perfectly true what happened, I have the video."
THEY HAVE DECIDED TO SPEAK PUBLICLY FOR THE FIRST TIME
[gentle music continues]
ACTIVIST
[breathes deeply]
ACTIVIST
[V] This story begins one night, when I was introduced to a nice person
and I ended up talking about activism,
because I always talk about activism.
And I was told that there were abuses at Marineland.
[ominous music plays]
So I talked to friends,
and we thought about how we could find out
if those abuses really occurred.
The only way we could do it was by getting a camera to record with.
So I asked for help.
I was a minor when I became an animal activist.
And I think it was already common knowledge
that these things were happening in Marineland.
[car door closes]
[engine rumbles]
[K] We got the information that…
we were able to gain access
to a neighbor's house with a good view
to install a surveillance camera,
and record videos.
[lightning crashes]
[door closing]
[K] We weren't even sure if it was going to work because we had never set up
a video surveillance system.
We had to ask for money to buy the cheapest device on the market.
They lent us a video camera.
[young K on video] I guess everything has been recorded?
I think it's marked as recorded? I don't know.
They told me in the store that this is a rare kind of camera.
We should make sure that all the days have been recorded.
[K] When we were setting up the system, we wanted to protect it from the rain,
so we put a cardboard on top of it.
We just had to wait.
Once we had all the material,
we contacted various associations to help us spread the word.
It was SOS Delfines that took the material,
and made a first cut,
which was not professional at all.
[intriguing music plays]
[reporter 1] None of this is natural. This is all a part
of a billion-dollar industry.
[reporter 2] It's why Georgia Animal Rights and Protection plans
to protest later this month.
The protest is really just to continue to keep the pressure on them
and educate the public about what's really going on.
[birds chirping]
[Mari] Once he got back from the United States, from Georgia,
José Luis stayed home.
We would go out for walks.
He kept going to Marineland to see how things were going,
and if they needed any help.
And he told me, "Tomorrow morning,
I have to get up earlier because I'm going to go get the vet."
He said, "Don't make me breakfast."
[pulsing suspenseful music plays]
Happening Now, Channel 2 Action News has learned
an embattled, incoming executive at the Georgia Aquarium is missing.
[anchor] After getting word of Barbero's disappearance,
in a written statement, aquarium CEO Mike Leven told us…
[reading]
[helicopter whirring]
CIVIL GUARD
[Mari] They started looking for José Luis when he didn't show up.
They sent the helicopters and they didn't stop looking for him.
They didn't stop.
And it was-- it was distressing.
[woman] When the video went viral,
it was a collective psychosis,
and… suddenly, we were the worst thing in the world.
I got messages threatening me, telling me they knew what I was doing.
FORMER MARINELAND TRAINER
I changed my life. I changed my job.
I buried it.
José Luis had been a friend, a boss, a partner…
Everything was a shock.
[ethereal music plays]
To talk about José Luis Barbero involves opening a lot of boxes.
It means addressing the issue of captivity,
of the power of social networks.
Talking about what the old school used to do, rougher things.
Talking about what elite training is like.
I say "elite" because José Luis looked for perfection.
You can't judge everything that went on, because of…
[sighs]
Because of…
a short video.
[Mari] The paradox in all this…
is that…
José Luis fought hard for the dolphins.
Then he…
was treated like an abuser.
I don't get it.
[breezy acoustic guitar music plays]
[Mari] It was love at first sight with Majorca.
The sea, the people.
The freedom.
One night, we went to the club and José Luis showed up.
That's how we met.
He was nice, he was… cocky.
[groovy music plays]
[reporter] On the coast of Blanes, in Marineland,
one show follows another without giving the visitor
a break from his wonder.
[upbeat rock music plays]
Marineland was created in 1970.
It was very innovative.
The first dolphinarium in Spain.
It was the most profitable park per square meter in the world.
It had distinguished visitors
like the royal family, the Dalai Lama,
Diana of Wales.
[Mari] When I arrived at Marineland,
I took a job washing dishes.
They asked me, "Mari,
do you know anyone who wants to work in the restaurant?"
I said, "I'll tell José Luis," and that's how it started.
[man] José Luis was intelligent, polite, and efficient.
He learned from others.
When he finished his shift,
instead of rushing off,
he always stood at the gate, looking at the dolphins for hours.
And one day, I asked a casual question.
"Do you like dolphins?"
He surprised me, because he said,
"Yes, I would love to be a dolphin trainer."
So I said, "Look."
"To get there, you have to work your way up from the bottom."
I told him, "You'll make more in four hours working as a waiter
than cleaning buckets."
He said, "Do you need to eat?" I said no.
[laughs]
[gentle folk music plays]
[Omar] At that time, all trainers were foreign,
because dolphinariums had existed in their countries for years.
But not here.
[Mari] They didn't want Spaniards.
[Roberto] It was a static show at one edge of the pool,
barely doing any exercises in the water.
That's when José Luis got in the pool.
[Roberto] Luis began to smell fishy, always cleaning the fish buckets.
He said, "I just clean buckets,
but I look at everything."
Then they gave him the sea lion to train.
He was happy.
He worked long hours.
He got in the water and started to do water exercises,
which was what he liked the most.
When Kees arrived, he helped him,
and that's how he got the hang of it.
[Kees] When I started to work in Majorca,
José Luis Barbero was appointed as my assistant.
I was told by a trainer
that, "Don't show anything to the Spaniards,
because they copy it straightaway, and you'll lose your job."
The head trainer was Markus Johann.
FORMER HEAD TRAINER AT MARINELAND
José Luis Barbero, he was really lucky to…
to-- Was in this time and the right moment, huh?
In the right place.
[woman on PA] You be careful, Markus. Markus, por favor.
[woman gasps]
[Markus] He-- He was lucky to learn a little bit from me,
little bit from, uh, Kees De Groot.
I think in one or two months, he was in show.
Wow, it was really fast. Ah!
You say, "Okay, oh, today's show, do." [gasps] "Me?"
"Yes, now, you."
"No." "Yes, go. Go!"
Then he went to make show, ah.
[woman on PA] And now, we have something very special.
Here comes José Luis.
[woman encouraging indistinctly]
Bravo!
[Markus] He was giving fish in the wrong moment.
He did this, and this.
Really bad. [laughs] Really shit.
Really bad, ah.
But that's normal, ah. I mean, we laughed, he laughed.
You know, drinking five carajillos after the show,
and everything was okay.
[woman] A round of applause.
A dolphin trainer is like an elite athlete.
The job demands a lot from your body.
[men laughing in video]
[Roberto] He was a perfectionist.
[lilting acoustic guitar music plays]
He would do the most difficult exercises a trainer could do.
[Kees] He was, in the water, the best trainer that I've ever seen.
He made it look so easy
that you'd think, "Wow."
[Omar] José Luis became the pool sheriff.
[woman in Spanish] A final round of applause for the dolphins
and their trainers.
[applauding]
I'm not suggesting that, as trainers, that we could go out
and conquer the world.
But I am suggesting that, as trainers,
we have the ability to make the world a better place to live in.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are a trainer
and the future is in your hands.
[upbeat pop music plays]
♪ Don't stop, don't stop ♪
♪ Don't stop, don't stop… ♪
[Daniel] IMATA was an international association
of all the trainers in the world.
But it wasn't. It was only for Americans.
[Roberto] The Americans were the ones who invented dolphin shows.
They were the gold standard.
For European trainers back then,
going to the IMATA annual conference was like being invited to the Oscars.
You were a bit of an ugly duckling.
[lively classical music plays]
[Daniel] At each conference, they'd give awards.
If you won an IMATA award, especially for best show,
it was important.
José Luis decided that he had to go there to win.
[Daniel] We went on trips, to conferences.
To see parks. We'd go see all the Sea Worlds.
Anywhere to see the shows, to see how theirs compared to ours.
JOSÉ LUIS BARBERO'S CAMERA
[José Luis] Come on! What a lousy way to train dolphins, man.
Look at his eyes, he's completely blind.
Why does the bottom look like that?
[Roberto on video] It's an illusion, to show depth.
[woman on video] …marine research program…
[woman on PA] Wow, this is pretty cool. I have ocean, I have…
[José Luis] What a mess.
[Mari] Once they knew how to work together,
he decided to put on a show.
And present it.
[stately classical music plays]
[Daniel] He went there to present the show and they laughed at him
before they even watched the video.
For them, we were rednecks.
"Who are these guys?"
Hello. My name is Deborah Morrison
and I've been collaborating along with José Luis Barbero.
[Daniel] But they were impressed by the video.
[sweeping music plays]
[Daniel] They were amazed.
"What is this?"
Our show had 42 exercises in 30 minutes.
We went to their parks.
The one with the most had 12 exercises in 45 minutes.
We beat them to a pulp.
[Roberto] And they came back winning the best dolphin show…
[melancholic classical music plays]
…and the title for the world's best trainer.
[José Luis] This is the first international award
achieved in Europe, and especially here in Majorca.
We're thrilled, and we will continue working
and winning awards with these animals.
It's a great way to make people aware
that we should conserve them in their environment,
in their natural habitat.
[helicopter whirring]
[news anchor] The police continue searching for the 59-year-old man
who went missing in the El Toro area in Calvià on Tuesday morning.
The man is José Luis Barbero,
the Marineland trainer who appears in the video
where he allegedly abused dolphins.
The police still haven't found any trace of the missing man.
[Javier] I kept hope that José Luis had perhaps rented a hotel room,
had gone to isolate himself.
Thought he probably needed to relax
and deal with the psychological pressure he was under.
I knew that I had to keep calm.
But…
I remembered the video, and I wanted to know where it came from.
What I saw,
it was recorded from the building next to Marineland, obviously.
And the image…
because of the poor quality,
you can see the stripes,
so I knew it was taken from a cell phone recording the security camera monitor.
[tense music plays]
You see elements that are different.
The floor was painted blue,
the sea lion chairs have been changed.
And we know when those changes occurred.
From that, we deduced that the videos
were shot over a couple of years,
at least.
If you were so concerned about the animals,
why do you wait to show the videos?
Why don't you show them the next day,
to put a stop to it?
I don't get it.
[José Luis on video] Lazy!
[dolphin screeches]
[Javier] About the video…
they really chose
the right moment to put it out.
It was when José Luis Barbero had signed the contract
with Georgia Aquarium, so he was already in the United States.
They gave a lot of thought about how to do the most damage
to José Luis.
I have the impression that part of the team
may have been collecting recordings
from the security cameras.
It's very likely that the same person or people continued
to take and record images
from the building next to Marineland over the years.
[tense music continues]
[Javier] What I see is hatred and revenge.
It's clear that José Luis has a lot of enemies.
He wanted always more,
and that becomes dangerous at a certain point.
[Daniel] The exercises required a lot of physical preparation.
If not, you couldn't keep up with the show.
He demanded it of himself and of others.
What happened? People didn't like it.
[woman on PA] And now, ladies and gentlemen,
something very difficult…
[Javier] There was an exercise that we all dreaded,
when José Luis would say, "Let's work on double-skiing."
It was scary.
-[lively music plays on video] -[whistle blows]
You had to be focused.
And when you saw the shadow of the dolphins passing by,
you prayed.
Prayed you wouldn't fall.
[speaks indistinctly]
[blows whistle]
Come on!
Go fuck yourself, you brat!
Come on, for fuck's sake!
He used to say, "You don't have a clue!"
"Come on! Get out of the water."
He even grabbed me by the hair, but that was the heat of the moment.
I asked him, "José Luis, aren't you going too far?"
He'd say, "Ask them if I am."
[Javier] "Why should an animal have to do it again because of you,
because you weren't focused or didn't do it right the first time?"
That's what really bothered José Luis.
[woman on PA] Fantastic!
[man] My father, when he was training, he was tough.
He didn't get new workers, or they didn't last long.
People quit.
I decided to talk to him, and said, "I'm gonna give you a hand."
SON
"If I'm good, fine. If I'm not good, I'll quit."
I was with him for three years.
My father was tough with all his workers, but with my brother…
SON
…four times worse.
You had to pay attention to what you were doing.
If you didn't, he'd tell you off. Which was normal.
I remember him using the open mic,
and being heard all over the park, you know?
Not just in the dolphinarium.
Telling him off and calling him names.
[José Luis] More to the left. Marcos!
Marcos!
You're way ahead, damn it!
You never learn! You're stubborn!
He treated me the same as everyone else.
[over PA] Fuck, Marcos,
if this is what you're going to do every time you come, we're in trouble.
[Marcos] I got very involved.
I learned from my father,
but realized that I would never achieve what he achieved.
Because he was one of the best coaches, and I couldn't achieve that.
I was… I was always bragging
that my father worked with dolphins and so on,
and I wanted to do it when I grew up.
DO YOUNGSTERS UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER BY TALKING?
He's the son of the general supervisor of marine animal trainers in Spain.
This is Jordi Barbero, he's six years old, and comes from Majorca.
[audience applauds]
[host] Jordi, tell us. This is…
-[Jordi] This one… -This is you?
-Or is this you? Which one is you? -[laughs]
[host] Why did you swim with them?
[Jordi] Because my father let me.
[host] You're lucky, because there aren't many kids
who have played with dolphins at your age.
Tell me one last thing.
Uh, what would you say to people who mistreat animals?
They must not misbehave or else the police will take them.
[host] The police, yes, sir.
CIVIL GUARD
[anxious music playing]
[Daniel] They didn't know where José Luis was.
It was a very painful time.
I thought we should care for José Luis.
Because he's…
very strong on the outside,
confident in his job.
But…
emotionally weak.
Insecure.
What he had to go through,
when he was fired from Marineland,
came to my mind.
The Monetary Committee agreed
that the peseta should be devalued by 8%.
It is essential at this time
to adjust labor costs.
[Roberto] The 1990s were times of tremendous economic ups and downs.
There was a very big crisis in Spain.
They called me one day and said, "Look."
"We're going to sell."
They wanted to get rid of Marineland Majorca.
They told me,
"Why don't you get your team together,
create a cooperative,
and buy the park?"
[people chattering]
[Roberto] The idea was that a group of people,
including José Luis,
would become shareholders.
It was the best thing that happened to us.
We would "own" the park. In some way.
We would all have a small piece of it.
But the owners of the land, the Blanes, weren't informed.
[Roberto] When I went to negotiate the renewal of the lease,
the Blanes told me,
"No, we've already given it to Aspro."
"Who?" Aspro.
[tense ethereal music plays]
[Omar] Aspro is an LLC made up of four or five partners.
Aspro started with two parks and now has 50 or so.
WATER PARKS -AQUARIUMS ZOOS - THEME PARK
They bought Marineland like it was a pizza factory.
It was a money-making machine,
it was a very good business.
But the concept they had for Marineland
was different from the one we had.
When Aspro bought Marineland,
everything changed.
Everything, it changed everything.
Even the people changed.
[Omar] The company started to make cutbacks,
to fire people at the end of the year. Everybody out.
Especially older ones.
[Roberto] I had a talk with José Luis,
advising him not to be cocky.
That he was dealing with bad people.
That…
things weren't like before,
things had changed.
José Luis said, "I won't do this. Not that one."
Companies don't tolerate that.
They fired him.
[melancholic music plays]
[Daniel] He couldn't enter the park. That was too much for him.
He'd call me on the phone,
and I'd open the door at the entrance to the beach,
so he could come in at night to see the dolphins.
More than once, I saw him crying…
because he couldn't see the dolphins.
He thought the dolphins were his, not the company's.
"They've taken away my dolphins."
[dolphin clicks and squeaks]
Because of this,
we found out that José Luis tried to commit suicide.
[heart beating]
[Mari] I didn't understand. I never got it.
I thought he was fine.
But he wasn't.
He was good at…
hiding it.
[projector clicks and whirs]
[Mari] When he started telling me about his life,
that changed my idea of him as a cocky guy.
He warned me, "When you see Los Pizarrales, don't be scared."
It's a humble neighborhood in Salamanca.
Not now, but in the past.
[man] Things were different then.
We had a different way of making a living.
We lived a lot in the street.
José Luis had a sixth sense with dogs.
He trained them, they obeyed him.
[Mari] He told me that he didn't have a mother.
He was 18 months old when she died.
I asked, "What about your father?"
He said, "My father got married right away to another woman."
"I was raised by my grandfather and my aunt."
He said, "They are my family."
He used to call me Mom, and I would say, "No, I'm your aunt."
When he was 10 or 11, he lost his grandmother,
and his father wanted to take him away.
He didn't want to go.
He never told us how bad he'd had it at that time.
One day,
I was coming home from work,
and they said, "Hey, what happened to José?"
"He left his bike, but he's gone."
[train whistle blowing]
[Olivia] He got on the train,
and the first place where it stopped, he got off.
He didn't feel comfortable, and said,
"I'll get on the train and… leave."
He disappeared for a week.
[train whistle blows]
[anxious music plays]
[Javier] I can understand José Luis.
He sees his passion, his life, falling apart.
The daily work with animals was therapeutic.
The admiration you get from your audience,
the applause you receive.
You lose all that.
You have to be psychologically trained not to suffer negative consequences.
He cared more about the animals than…
He always cared, but I didn't think it was that much.
[suspenseful classical music plays]
MISSING PERSON IN #CALVIÀ IS TRAINER REPORTED BY SOS DELFINES
[Anna] José Luis disappeared, and…
his Facebook wall was full of accusations.
MAYBE A DOLPHIN ATE HIM?
[news anchors all speaking simultaneously]
MAYBE HE WENT TO GEORGIA AND DIDN'T TELL ANYONE?
I HOPE HE SHOWS UP SOON SO THAT HE CAN GO TO JAIL
I DON'T CARE IF HE FALLS HEAD FIRST OFF A CLIFF
[Anna] I don't think anyone can imagine the pressure
until you experience it.
The problem is that the video was personal,
because the person who made it…
who planned it,
had something against José Luis Barbero.
The issue isn't José Luis.
The issue is if you are for or against captivity.
Let's sit down, let's talk.
[José Luis] All right, come on, get up. Let's go.
[Daniel] José Luis reached a point where he said, "Fuck it, let's go."
And he did it.
[dolphin squeaks]
-[man] Hold it. -Watch out for its fin.
[splashing]
[Daniel] He got to work with dolphins again.
And that breathed new life into him.
Good, pull this way. Pull this way.
-This way. -[man] Cross…
-[groans] -[woman] Alfonso!
[José Luis] Did you hurt yourself? He hurt himself.
[gasps] Wait.
[Javier] José Luis contacts me
and tells me about the project he's involved in.
[José Luis] Okay, okay.
[Javier] Two dolphinariums, one in Alicante and the other in Tenerife.
No, no, no.
-[woman] Are you okay or not? -[José Luis] Yes. Holy shit! Fuck.
[man] Let's wait.
[Javier] Getting dolphins is very difficult.
[José Luis] Okay, out then. Let's turn it over and draw blood.
It won't take it.
[Javier] But since all dolphinariums in the UK had been closed,
there were some dolphins on the market that could be rented.
[José Luis] It's against my chest.
[Javier] José Luis finds out and rents them.
-[Alfonso] I bet you can't. -[man] A bit, man.
[Alfonso] Okay, perfect.
-[man] Careful. -Careful, careful! Fucking…
-[man] Careful back there! -Careful, damn it!
[Javier] There was no money or other resources available.
And José Luis had to pay out of his own pocket
what was the minimum
that would be needed to take care of the animals.
Even when things were going badly,
I remember that José Luis used his own money
to pay the trainers' salaries there.
[José Luis] Apply a bit of alcohol here.
That's it. Let's turn it.
We can turn it.
[splashing]
[Javier] After a few months, economic difficulties crept in,
and we decided to take the three dolphins we had in Alicante
to the park in Tenerife.
We knew that the economic situation there was better,
and that there wouldn't be any problems.
[spacey music playing]
[reporter] Mass tourism is the driving force
behind dolphin shows in Spain.
There are four dolphinariums in the Canary Islands alone.
For me, it is the Guantánamo of cetaceans.
An animal that needs to travel long distances.
How can they put it in a pool? No matter how big.
[Mari] José Luis, when he set up the Tenerife dolphinarium,
he already had it well-planned.
He had gone over the blueprints many times.
[dolphin clicking]
[Javier] The dolphinarium designed by José Luis at that time
was the most modern dolphinarium in Spain.
In fact, it was equipped with better facilities,
more water capacity,
all in the service of the welfare of the animals
and their veterinary care.
He already knew how many animals he was going to have.
He wanted a breeding program.
[Kees] When José Luis wanted to open the park in the Canary Islands,
the United States closed the exportation of all marine mammals.
And the first alternative that came up
is Cuba.
[lively salsa music playing]
[Javier] Cuba was actually one of the few countries
that traded dolphins at that time.
IMPERIALISTS, WE ARE NOT AFRAID OF YOU!
For years, Cuba had been in what was called "the special period,"
when the USSR ceased to support Cuba economically.
[Kees] When we were bringing dolphins over with José Luis,
on one or two of the occasions,
Fidel Castro walked in,
because this was probably the biggest money-maker
that Cuba had in those days,
because they had very little income of US dollars.
Cuba? [laughs]
A disaster. [laughs]
The dolphinarium was-- [scoffs]
If the ones here were bad,
imagine how they were in Cuba.
Criminal.
[people yell indistinctly on video]
[Kees] Cuba has a veterinarian officer.
Her name is Celia Guevara,
and she's the daughter of Che Guevara.
Celia Guevara would always come with us
to make sure the animals are okay.
[Javier] I realized that, in order to have those dolphins,
we had to get in line.
Because there were more people interested,
there were more companies interested in buying dolphins.
You were put on the waiting list.
[dolphin squeaks and clicks]
[Javier] It hit me in the face.
The reality of seeing animals that had just been captured,
and you suddenly became an… accomplice.
[splashing]
[man 1] It's dirty, they've been there for days.
[man 2] Come on, boss.
[tense music plays]
Which one is it?
Move aside. Come on.
Close there, close.
No.
Close it!
[all speaking indistinctly]
-[man 1] Careful with its fin. -[man 2] Its head.
[Celia] Careful with its tail!
-Its tail! -[man 3] There, there!
-[man 1] Hold its head. -[man 2] Okay.
Celia, now!
-[man 1] Hmm? -[man 2] What time is it?
[man 1] 9:20 p.m.
[Celia] Come on, let's move it forward.
-[man] Now. -[Celia] Roll, now.
[all speak indistinctly]
[man] Lift its head!
[José Luis] No, leave the tail! Wait a minute.
Celia, when you're ready, tell me.
-[man 1] Take the stick out. -[man 2] What stick?
-That one! -That's not a stick.
[tense music continues]
[Javier] That plane was scary.
[plane engine starting]
I remember constant noise, annoying.
If it's annoying for us, it's annoying for the animals, too.
The truth is, they behaved well,
despite being in that situation,
and then during an experience
that had to be like as if we were abducted by a UFO, something like that.
["The Flower Duet" by Léo Delibes plays]
IMATA CONFERENCE, 1996
[José Luis] …the duration of transport, taking 18 hours from pool to pool.
Everything going fine before, during the transport,
and after the transport.
All six dolphins they arrived in perfect condition.
[Javier] We had three animals that came from Alicante
and six dolphins that were bought in Cuba.
The dynamics were so good
that, after a few months, we realized that four females were pregnant.
[Javier on video] Go fuck off, motherfucker.
You can see him in his full swing now.
'Cause the guy is so horny.
-He's hornier than a toad. -[woman laughs]
[Javier] What a month he's having. [exclaims]
He doesn't care if it's a male or female.
Whenever he sees a hole, he wants to put it in.
-[woman] Really? -Yeah, really.
[Javier] In captivity, there are births,
but the mortality rate can be very high.
The fact that four out of four babies survived
was an impressive milestone.
Not all dolphinaria can produce offspring.
It was a success for the company. The company, the park, everybody.
The company could make profit in many ways.
When they're adults and trained, you can take them to another park.
You also don't have to get dolphins by capturing them.
You don't have to buy another animal, because they were expensive.
[José Luis on video] Come on, sweetie. Yeah, you can do it.
Look, look, look, look, look, look!
Come on, come on, come on!
[man] It's mostly out, right?
[José Luis] Yes. Come on, come on! Come on, come on!
[man] That's it! Done.
[José Luis] A female, it's a female!
Look, look at her! Let's go, let's go, let's go!
-[man claps] That's it! -[José Luis] Let's go!
Come on! Come on! Come on!
[man] That's it, great!
[José Luis] Let's go up! Let's go up!
Good, good, good, good, good!
She has a girl's face.
It's grown, our family has grown.
[reporter 1] With her arrival, 12 dolphins have been born
in Aqualand Costa Adeje's aquatic mammal breeding program
in the last 13 years.
This puts the company among the elite of European dolphinaria.
Very few dolphinariums in the world achieve a 100% success rate.
The dolphins are born, and after two or three months or weeks,
they don't make it because of problems, as I mentioned.
[helicopter whirring]
[reporter 2] On Tuesday, Barbero left his house in El Toro
to attend a meeting.
He never arrived.
The search started after that.
[somber pulsing music plays]
[Marcos] You think he might still be alive.
I called his phone several times
and told him to please stop whatever he was doing
and come back home.
That we were with him.
The signal disappeared and the phone went dead.
We were also afraid because of social media,
because my father had received death threats,
both him and the family.
After many days without hearing anything, the anguish was enormous.
[Mari] I thought…
he'd be by the sea.
If he didn't show up…
he only liked the sea.
[cheerful music plays on speakers]
[audience claps rhythmically]
[Daniel] José Luis went someplace clueless about dolphins,
and made it the best dolphinarium in Spain.
I went to see it. Fantastic.
Made me happy.
Higher jumps, faster animals.
Spectacular.
And evidently, Aspro found out.
[José Luis blows whistle] Put your hands down!
Hands down! Adán, hands down.
Not you! Get on the edge. Hands down!
[Javier] When José Luis learned that Aspro had entered his life again,
he was nervous, very nervous.
[moody music playing]
[Javier] Aspro Ocio did it on the sly.
The owner of the park…
made the mistake of selling a 51% share.
He lost control of his company.
[Daniel] Selling it cheap,
it's like your park got robbed.
Uh…
That's how companies work.
[Mari] José came home one day and said,
"Mari, you know who he sold it to?"
When he told me, I said, "That's it."
Aspro. "Well, let's pack up and go home."
Stop right there! Move back!
[blows whistle]
Move back!
[Javier] The training sessions…
Fuck you, man!
…were tense.
[José Luis] Can you move further away from the animals?
Will you move further away?
[whistle blows]
Holy shit. It's just unbelievable, man.
[dolphin clicks]
[on microphone] Yes, hello?
Feed that animal.
[yells] Don't get out until this one's out!
-[Javier] I thought he was out already! -Fuck!
You don't start until he comes here.
Don't you fucking ever learn? Fuck.
God! What a fucking idiot!
What a shitty show, damn it!
When Aspro arrived, we were expecting them to fire him, yes.
The thing was… No, they didn't tell him anything.
He kept working.
I said, "José Luis, it's strange."
Then they told him they never intended to fire him.
[gentle music playing]
[Javier] It was a gold mine.
If José Luis got fired,
it'd be like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
You can hire another-- another professional.
Thing is, who would you hire?
[Daniel] A dolphin costs you 200,000 euros untrained.
Trained, it costs you a million euros.
José Luis earned the company a lot of money.
Millions.
[man on recording] Óscar.
[woman] It looks like he threw up.
[José Luis] He's scared, right? They're throwing balls, towels--
-[dolphin squeaks] -…and all that shit.
Cover! Ugh! God!
[dolphin clicks]
[José Luis] Let's see, move it a little bit.
-[man] Inside? -[José Luis] Yes, inside and now outside.
-Outside. -[man] Outside?
[José Luis] Don't! Don't open that much, Pe.
-[man] I don't want him to bite my hand. -Don't worry.
Here it is, look at it. Here.
When he breathes, he fucks everything up. Go up.
[grunts] Record it, record it, record it!
Fucking camera!
The fucking ball's here, thank God we found it.
There's the ball. It's down there.
[man] Now we… Now we need to introduce a lot of water.
Yeah.
[José Luis] Careful now.
[dolphin squeaks]
Do you want me to choke him again? [laughs]
Come on…
[dolphin retches]
[José Luis] There it is, there it is.
[woman] Can you introduce the tube?
[José Luis grunts] Come on, come on!
[man] It's the other way. You have to bend it that way…
-Okay. -…so the animal will turn around.
-Okay. -[woman] This is slippery!
[José Luis] It's very slippery.
[woman groans]
[José Luis] Come on, there you go. Pull and see…
[woman] Come on, man. Come on.
[José Luis] Shh, shh…
[dolphin groans]
[José Luis] That's it, now! Try again, Tania.
-I think that's enough. Careful. -[grunts]
[José Luis] Got it?
-Yeah! -Yeah!
[all cheering]
Great!
Come on, go, go, go! Water!
-[woman] Where is he? -[Tania] He went to open up.
-Where's the ball? -[woman] In there.
-[Tania] So I can record it. -[José Luis] Go check the water.
I don't know why this shit is taking so long.
[man 2] Take a look at it.
[José Luis] I want to see if it's intact, that there are no missing pieces.
[man 1] That hole is huge.
[dramatic music plays]
[activist] Captivity, jail!
Free the dolphins!
I LOVE FREE DOLPHINS
Actually, we're going inside to ask for a ban
-on dolphin captivity in Europe. -[megaphone feeds back]
We're gonna ask for that.
[Javier] I remember back then,
there was pressure against the dolphinarium,
but not at the level we have today.
NO TO CAPTIVITY
José Luis, who was a very intelligent guy,
decided to set up a therapy program.
[chanting] Free the dolphins! Free the dolphins!
We're here with José Luis,
who is promoting dolphin therapy in Spain.
How long have you been working on this therapy,
and who are the children it's designed for?
We started in 1993, and it consists of helping children with special needs
by allowing them to interact with dolphins.
[reporter 1] In a totally altruistic way…
[Javier] He didn't mind getting into something very messy.
[gentle music plays]
[Javier] At first, when we got into dolphin therapy,
I thought, "But we have no idea what we're doing."
[José Luis] What we want is for the child to be motivated,
and by being motivated, they develop concepts
that might take months to develop in a center.
Here, because of the excitement,
because of the new environment the child experiences,
the child develops spontaneously.
[child exclaims excitedly]
Do you want to go see the seals or the dolphins?
[Javier] It was very shocking to see José Luis,
who was so demanding with both dolphins and trainers,
and then the way he behaved with children in the water,
how he handled them,
how gently he treated them,
how patiently.
[reporter 2] Dolphin therapy has been experienced
by more than 2,500 attendees with different diagnoses.
[José Luis] I believe that keeping these animals in captivity
deserves to be reconsidered, because we don't just do circus exercises,
but we work on more important things.
[Javier] The therapies were carried out in our free time.
In that sense,
he was the one who devoted most of his time to doing them.
He made it clear to the company from the beginning,
"I do this because I want to,
and I won't allow you to charge anyone who comes here."
[José Luis] It's very dangerous to give false hopes with these projects.
It's not a panacea,
and we must not confuse people.
These children suffer tremendous anxiety,
and we must be realistic.
The dolphin is a facilitator,
an assistance to the therapy that the child receives
on a regular basis.
It is a means, not a remedy.
[Javier] I think that José Luis saw the therapies
as a way to protect himself
from the criticism of animal associations.
But I think he realized that he was doing something really big
and very positive for many families.
[sweeping hopeful music plays]
[crowd cheering]
[applauding]
[Javier] The results that José Luis had in Tenerife were great.
[audience applauds]
Without a doubt, it was the best dolphinarium in the company.
But… Majorca was different.
[anxious music playing]
[protestor] Please do not buy a ticket.
These animals, they only have you.
Their only hope is for people to stop coming to the show
so these things will die off
and they will not be kidnapped anymore from the sea.
They will not be hunted in the sea because…
[Javier] Aspro was not happy at all with the dolphinarium in Majorca.
Both in terms of shows
and other types of income.
[Anna] When I joined Marineland Majorca,
we wanted to take an educational approach.
A calmer show where the animal was not seen interacting with objects,
improving the welfare of the animals.
We tried not to have so many people in a pool with dolphins,
fewer photos,
and there were fights with management,
because…
it's very profitable.
You hold out your hand, a dolphin touches you,
you get money.
But it's boring for the dolphins.
[Javier] Because the company has another dolphinarium
where this activity is an important source of income,
it would naturally demand the same from the one in Majorca.
So they called José Luis to fix it.
If he refused to go back,
he would've been fired.
-[young Marcos] Achoo! -[baby sneezes]
[Javier] He had been living in Tenerife for 20-odd years,
and he had his life there.
His house, his family.
[singing indistinctly]
[Javier] To be honest, when Aspro forced him to make the move to Majorca…
I love dolphins.
[Javier] …that was…
a bummer.
[pulsing suspenseful music plays]
I have here a report that José Luis wrote to…
Aspro when he was sent to Majorca,
so that you can understand what-- what happened.
And how José Luis was.
He says, "Analyzing the general aspects
of the two dolphinariums,
you are going to face problems in Tenerife
by trying to bring the same kind of show to Majorca,
which doesn't fit in with the current times at Marineland."
[José Luis] A show like the one we did 25 years ago in Majorca
will probably increase the interest of certain clients.
But you also have to think about the consequences,
and problems it would bring.
I can come up with a circus-type show like the one 25 years ago,
as long as working policies are changed in that dolphinarium.
"The question is, is that what Marineland needs?"
"I think not."
The truth is he didn't want to.
Even if he would've been fired,
he didn't want to.
And, uh, that's where I messed up.
I said, "Our friends are there,
and you're about to retire."
"Let's not have any more problems, you've already had enough."
And so on.
And he accepted.
[eerie music playing]
When they told us that José Luis Barbero was coming,
we all, um…
braced ourselves, because his fame preceded him.
Shall we?
[Anna] We knew he was very demanding.
They hired him to come and put everything in order here, right?
The practices were tough, and there was a lot of tension.
He was always yelling.
[José Luis] Come on, close, damn it!
[Anna] We repeated things many times.
He brings back hoops, the referee's whistle.
He puts out objects.
And for us, it was like, "Wow."
"Wait, we're going backwards."
"We're kind of going back to school."
[man] The Marineland show here in Majorca
has always been something very special.
It was an award-winning show,
not only here in Spain but also in the United States.
That's what we wanna achieve again.
[Javier] The results José Luis brought were already noticeable
when the park reopened for the summer four months later.
[dramatic percussive music plays]
[dolphins squeak]
[people cheering]
[Anna] And that's when we decided to talk to management,
and say that we weren't comfortable as a team,
that we were getting into a routine that wasn't what we wanted.
[woman speaks indistinctly on PA]
[Mari] A lot of people working there didn't like José Luis.
I know how José Luis can be. He's always blunt and, well…
There were some who accepted him,
some who didn't.
[Anna] There was a girl. Her dream was to become a dolphin trainer.
But…
she left the training out of breath. She almost fainted.
José Luis told her, "Train."
"Go to the gym."
And… she didn't.
Well… she wasn't into sports.
Or… she didn't want to, or-- I don't know. She didn't want to train.
[woman] To the management of Marineland Majorca.
I want to submit the following facts in writing.
[José Luis] For fuck's sake! Damn it!
[woman] José Barbero has treated the team and the dolphins
in such a humiliating and uncivilized way.
[José Luis] See how we aren't being clear? Fuck!
[woman] He' yelled at me with phrases like,
"Go to a fucking gym!" "You're lazy!" "Dumb!" "Useless!"
[José Luis yells] Stand on the edge! Put your hand away!
[woman] He hit the dolphins.
[blows whistle] Fuck you!
[woman] He said, "Let them fall. They won't throw themselves down again."
FOR THE ATTENTION OF MANAGEMENT
[Carla] This employee wrote what was happening in a letter.
And this letter was hand-delivered with acknowledgment of receipt.
In other words, the manager signed it.
The manager knew, and instead of trying
to put an end to these practices, he fired her.
[reporter] This zoo is well known for their dolphin shows.
-We're with the director of the zoo. -Yes, that’s true.
Hello, Rafa. You've changed a lot and the dolphin show has also changed,
which is spectacular.
[Rafa] José Luis Barbero is the technical director of the dolphinarium
and he’s improved everything.
Not only the show, but also the animals' environment.
It will give us a quality boost here on the island,
and in our dolphinarium.
[spacey music playing]
[Anna] We were in the locker room one day.
This girl who went to talk to management
and found out she'd just been fired,
and… she came in, and said that it wasn't the end.
She wanted to make José Luis Barbero pay.
[young V speaks indistinctly on video]
[V] No one really knows what happened.
The person I met,
who warned us about this mistreatment,
was a Marineland employee.
-[young V on video] It's him, right? -[woman] Sure. That man disgusts me.
-[young V laughs] -[woman] Ugh.
Let's see.
Do something, do something.
That had to hurt.
[young V] It makes me laugh, okay?
[woman] He's fat but I think he doesn't know it.
[tense ethereal music plays]
FEBRUARY 4TH, 2015
[blows whistle shrilly]
Hey!
A trainer has allegedly abused dolphins.
[news anchor] …shows aggressive training techniques…
We've seen that it could be doctored.
There was no real indication that we found…
He's been training dolphins for 35 years.
[reporter] SOS Delfines posted the undercover video,
which it claims shows trainer José Luis Barbero of…
[K] Our objective was not reflected in the SOS Delfines publication.
The captivity problem was symbolized by José Luis Barbero.
It focused exclusively on him.
[V] I was shocked when he kicked a dolphin in the ribs.
But it wasn't him. I think it was a woman.
When we mention "the industry,"
we mean the industry as a collective of professionals.
Never targeting an individual,
either on a personal level
or on any other level.
If they really had concern for their animals,
they may be thinking twice about hiring someone like this.
[whistle blows]
-[dolphin squeaks] -[blows shrilly]
[Anna] Was José Luis like that? It was a part of him.
[whistle blows shrilly]
He gave 120%, and he wanted us to give the same.
Even the animals.
Can you demand that from an animal,
that… hasn't chosen to be there?
What if we think differently?
[José Luis yells indistinctly]
[Anna] I wish this video had been used to end captivity.
[moody ethereal music plays]
But that video was created to destroy him.
[blows whistle]
Hey!
[José Luis] This must be a revenge plot
by some ex-employees of-- of Marineland.
SOS and FAADA have made a terrible mistake
because they've been used for a vendetta.
But for now…
[Carla] We were surprised that José Luis Barbero
appeared alone in the media.
I didn't get the feeling that Marineland Majorca
backed José Luis Barbero.
Rather, they seemed to be interested in that separation.
Obviously, Aspro…
wanted to stay out of it, wanted to be unaffected.
But it couldn't.
MARINELAND: WE ARE SHOCKED AND EMBARRASSED
[Roberto] Aspro behaved very badly by staying silent.
If you keep quiet,
you're really saying, "Well, yes."
"He must have been mistreating and torturing animals."
Which is outrageous,
because he's one of your employees.
You can't wash your hands and play Pontius Pilate at the same time.
[interviewer] Aspro issued several press releases,
and José Luis was no longer an employee of the company.
That's a very poor technicality.
Don't make a fool of me.
[Marcos] IMATA wanted to expel him from the association because of the video.
He'd lectured, he'd taught problem-solving techniques,
he'd educated trainers,
he taught his methods.
To be paid back like that must've been very hard.
[moody ethereal music continues]
[rain pattering gently]
[Javier] José Luis must have felt immensely lonely at that moment.
Who knows what was going on in his head?
[Roberto] In the 1980s, the '90s,
saying you were a dolphin trainer was fascinating to everyone.
[crowd cheers]
MARINELAND = TORTURE
[Roberto] Today, it's frowned upon.
I sincerely believe that José Luis felt
that the world he knew…
was slipping away from him like sand.
[Mike] Everybody's entitled to a fair judgment.
It's a terrible responsibility to take
when you publicize something of that nature
that can demean a person after 35, 37 years of work.
FEBRUARY 28, 2015
[tense music playing]
SOS DOLFINES MEETS WITH GEORGIA AQUARIUM INVESTIGATORS
[Carla] After a long meeting, they told us that the video was manipulated,
and the audio did not match the video.
But we stayed calm.
We stayed calm because we knew we had lots of material.
RECORDING OF THE MEETING
[man on tape] So, we also talked
to eight or ten other people that have worked with José Luis.
And they all say that, yes, he's very demanding on the trainers.
[Carla on tape] Right.
[man] He is loud against the trainers,
but that he is not somebody that mistreats the animals.
And it is our understanding that-- that a lot of the sound,
a lot of the words,
came from a video of a recording one of them made
in a meeting amongst the trainers.
[Carla] I think maybe now is the time to show you
the video which corresponds to the, um…
[clicks tongue] …to the voice.
[José Luis whistles shrilly]
Get the fucking ball!
Hey! Lazy!
[Carla] This is the audio that you heard in the other one,
that you were told happened in a meeting.
Stop whistling and touch the fucking ball!
Lazy!
[whistles shrilly] Are you dumb or what?
Huh? Are you dumb?
Hey! You're dumb!
-[man] Is this everything you have? -[Carla] No.
-[woman] We have hours and hours. -[Carla] Hours and hours.
15 DAYS
30 DAYS
44 DAYS
[Carla] We told them we had many hours of footage
that proved the facts were real.
That it happened, not once, but over a long period of time.
When we showed them the images,
they were astonished.
[ominous musical flourish plays]
[interviewer] Did Georgia Aquarium send a team of investigators to Spain?
No.
We were doing a forensic audit of-- of the mov-- of the film.
That forensic audit said it was doctored,
and we were gonna go forward with him.
I had no knowledge of anybody from Atlanta
going to Spain to investigate the video in Spain.
Not at all.
[man speaks indistinctly]
[reporter] Aquarium leaders confirmed they hired consultants
to analyze the video and see if it's authentic.
The Aquarium has also hired a former FBI investigator
who traveled to Spain as part of his investigation.
[Mike on video] We can't take a risk on our reputation.
[somber music plays]
Eh, that video says that, uh, we've… I-I…
It says we hired an FBI person to go investigate the video?
Uh…
I-- I don't recall. I don't recall that.
We might have. It's a long time ago.
But, uh, I mean, if we did, he never-- he never got there, to my knowledge.
I never got a bill from the FBI or anybody else.
So I don't-- I don't-- I don't-- I, uh… I-I-I…
It's confusing to me.
RECORDING OF THE MEETING
[man] The video that I just saw in there,
nobody's done anything to manipulate that video.
All I want to do is show it to my client.
And I would really like to have it on Monday.
[Carla] We were actually thinking of making it public,
only to counteract the accusations
of us falsifying and manipulating the video.
[man] Would you let my client make a decision before you publish it?
They don't need the public pressure
if they're already going to make a decision now.
[Carla] Hmm, how long would that take?
[man] Not long, I don't think.
-[Carla] It's gotta be within this week. -[man] Of course. Yes, absolutely.
[woman] Okay, then we accept that.
[man] All right. That's it.
[tape player clicks]
Then they committed to--
to handing it over to the Georgia Aquarium,
and they asked us not to publish that video, the second one.
But to wait, because they wanted to take a public position
on the hiring, or not hiring, of Mr. Barbero.
[sinister electronic music plays]
THREE DAYS AFTER THE MEETING, JOSÉ LUIS BARBERO DISAPPEARS
Hello, I'm Wendy Corona. We are following new developments
in the case of a dolphin trainer hired by the Georgia Aquarium
accused of abusing the animals.
Channel 2 Action News has confirmed
Luis Barbero was found dead inside of his car
in a public parking lot outside a Spanish airport last night.
Spanish police are saying that this case is right now being investigated
but also being treated as a suicide.
[ethereal music plays]
[Marcos] They found my father at the Palma de Majorca airport.
He committed suicide.
I don't know how long he had been dead.
If it was one or two days.
They didn't tell us the cause or how he did it.
And that's it.
[voice breaking] I always felt my father was a strong person.
You know what I mean?
The truth is that I never meddled in his affairs.
Now, I regret it so much.
I regret not calling him and telling him,
because I thought my father was the toughest person
in terms of his mentality.
Because he always was.
ONE BASTARD LESS IN THE WORLD
FUCK HIM FOR BEING A RETARD
ONE THING IS FOR SURE: GOD IS SLOW… BUT HE DOESN'T MAKE MISTAKES.
I HOPE YOU SUFFERED IN YOUR DEATH
I'M GLAD. AND HIS FUCKING FAMILY TOO
[melancholic music plays]
[Mari] When José Luis passed,
I was…
alone. I-- I don't know.
You lack support.
But then…
I sank.
My friends tried to help me.
They succeeded, but it took a long time to get out of the house.
Almost two years.
I didn't want to go out.
I didn't want to.
Because I, uh…
was ashamed.
[sobbing] Because I thought that…
people would mess with me.
But it was the opposite.
[tattoo gun buzzing]
[Marcos] I quit working with animals after a year.
Because I didn't feel the same.
I realized that-- that I wasn't performing at work,
and that thing was still gnawing at me.
I didn't feel the same way anymore.
Once José Luis Barbero died, we had no more news from any group.
Not from SOS Delfines, or FAADA, or anyone else.
They cut themselves off completely.
I was in shock.
In shock, but I couldn't force myself to feel anything
for someone that I didn't even know.
I couldn't feel bad about it because…
I hadn't really done anything wrong
to feel bad about.
If I were to feel bad, it would be because I felt guilty.
And all I've done is film dolphins being mistreated.
That's all.
And those dolphins are still in Marineland.
[Javier] When José Luis Barbero left us,
and I remained in charge of the dolphinarium in Majorca…
[dolphin clicking]
…my difficulties really came when I started to resent
all of these decisions being made in Madrid.
Which did not favor the animals at all.
The only thing they care about was…
economic benefits.
At the beginning of 2017,
Aspro Ocio stopped trusting me, and…
you know what?
I… I felt great relief.
I don't think I would work with dolphins in captivity again.
I would like to go back to working with dolphins,
but in another way.
[gentle hopeful music plays]
Maybe in… 30 years from now,
all the captive dolphins in Spain and Europe
will be relocated to sanctuaries around the world,
or whatever you want to call them.
That would be something I believe in.
Of course, I would like to participate in that kind of work.
Maybe it's naive, but it's my dream.
[people chatter and laugh]
-What? -[Mari] It's fine, looks good. It's cool.
[Javier] Tomorrow, we'll go to the beach like that.
[laughs] Jesus, man, it looks like I'm wearing a curtain here.
[Javier] Let's see, blink. Blink.
[Mari] José Luis, he was always making jokes.
A couple of us were talking about dying,
he'd say, "I'll come down, so be careful what you do."
[José Luis] Say hello, Mari.
[laughs]
-[José Luis] I might fall. -I hope you do.
[José Luis] You are so hot.
[Mari] How cool are those clouds?
[José Luis] Mm-hmm.
Now I tell him, "Come down! I want to see you now."
But he doesn't come.
FOLLOWING THE RELEASE OF THE VIDEO,
MARINELAND INSTALLED PANELS TO REDUCE VISIBILITY
THERE ARE ABOUT 330 DOLPHINARIA IN THE WORLD
SPAIN HAS MORE THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN EUROPE.
ASPRO OCIO REPRESENTATIVES REFUSED TO TAKE PART IN THIS FILM.
THE FORMER EMPLOYEE OF MARINELAND REFUSED TO TAKE PART IN THIS MOVIE.
[spacey moody pop music playing]
♪ Came for the dark ♪
♪ Came out of nowhere ♪
♪ No faces, no trial ♪
♪ Just slice of no man ♪
♪ I guess they need revenge ♪
♪ For this moment ♪
♪ I guess they need to blame someone ♪
♪ They can't ♪
♪ Faceless people can't ♪
♪ Hurt me ♪
♪ Faceless people can't ♪
♪ Blame me ♪
♪ Faceless people can't ♪
♪ Change me ♪
♪ Faceless people can't ♪
♪ Hurt me ♪