She also admitted to personally assisting the dolphin when it became aroused.
That is definitely not something you hear every day.
The experiment was led by Margaret Howe Lovatt, who was working alongside neuroscientist John Lilly.
Lilly had secured NASA funding for a research lab where he aimed to explore human-dolphin communication and possibly teach dolphins to speak English.
Her primary goal was to help the dolphin learn to mimic human speech, which was one of Lilly’s more ambitious objectives.
Looking back on her time in the lab, Lovatt explained: “I chose to work with Peter because he had not had any human-like sound training and the other two had.”
The project had a scientific foundation, but things took an unexpected turn when Lovatt noticed that Peter had developed a deep fascination with her body.
Initially, Lovatt tried to manage this by allowing Peter to spend time with two female dolphins in the facility.
She began manually relieving Peter’s urges to keep him focused on the language experiment.
In a BBC documentary, she reflected on her decision: “It was just easier to incorporate that and let it happen. It was very precious, it was very gentle. Peter was right there, he knew that I was right there.”
She acknowledged the experience was somewhat intimate but explained: “Sensuous, perhaps.”
She further justified her actions by saying: “It would just become part of what was going on, like an itch – just get rid of it, scratch it and move on. And that’s really all it was,” “I was there to get to know Peter. That was part of Peter.”
The situation escalated when a piece about her and Peter was published in Hustler magazine.
Reflecting on the backlash, Lovatt admitted: “It’s a bit uncomfortable,” “
The worst experiment in the world, I’ve read somewhere, was me and Peter. That’s fine, I don’t mind. But that was not the point of it, nor the result of it. So I just ignore it.”
