I'd like to hear y'all's opinions about this (:
This is mine ⬇️
Okay so I'm pretty sure y'all are familiar with SeaWorld, right? I went once when I was 8 or 9 and I thought it was pretty cool. It never once crossed my mind that the orcas performing for shows were anything but contempt. I went along with my life believing the lie SeaWorld had created to hide the truth. Recently I watched the film, Blackfish. I encourage all of y'all to watch it. It's on netflix. Anyway, I understand watching a documentary doesn't make me an "expert", but I feel like I know enough to have a very strong opinion.
Orcas in captivity is wrong. I just really find it sickening that humans have forced wild animals to preform tricks for our own selfish entertainment (also circuses). By putting orcas in such close proximity to humans it creates danger for the orcas as well as the trainers in the water. A lot of people have died (search up Dawn Brancheu), and many more have life-long injures from orcas attacking in captivity. I find it curious that orcas in the wild have never attacked humans or shown aggressive behavior. It is clear to me that they were much better off in the wild and there are countless examples of why.
A great example of the stress caused by captivity is the collapsed dorsal fin. 100% of captive male killer whales have collapsed dorsal fins. In the wild, it shows up in less than 1%. Wild orcas have straight dorsal fins that slice through the water. It was proven that the collapsed dorsal fin is caused by stress. The orcas in captivity are sometimes "raked" by the other orcas. This is when an orca basically rubs up against another orca and creates scratches and bruises that often are left bleeding into the pool.
The pools that orcas are confined to are way too small. Killer whales in the wild swim up to 100 miles per day. They could never get even close to that in the pools that they live in. It's basically like living in a bathtub for 25 years. Also the life-span between captive and wild orcas is shocking. Orcas in captivity either die in their early years, or 20-30. Only one has made it to 40 years old. In the wild. They live up to 80 years old. It's obvious that they're much better off in the wild where they belong. Some pro-captivity people argue that you can't just "set them free" and that the sudden change would be too much. They've done it once before, and the orca lived for two more years in the wild! I'm sure those were the best years of it's life.
SeaWorld lies to its trainers, and to the public. They try to cover up any evidence of deaths and injuries at SW. They lie about the health of their orcas and say that they're perfectly fine. A direct quote- "orcas in our care live and die just as they would in the wild". Well obviously this is wrong bc the life-spans are not even close to each other. They say that orcas have the right amount of space when it's perfectly obvious they don't. They only spend a fraction of what they make on their animals. The rest they spend on who knows what. I just hate how all this manipulation and devastation was all for money.
One of the most heart-breaking things was how they capture orcas. Orcas have immense brains, and complex social lives. They live in pods, that each have their own call. They stay together, hunt together, swim together, and live together. Now., these people would go out on boats and hunt orca pods down. It was horrible. They would throw bombs into the ocean, anything to set the orcas off. They would trap the whole pod into a corner of the ocean and kill all of the larger orcas. Then they would stick the babies into crates for shipping (smaller orcas because it cost less money). The moms would call out to their babies. One of the men who did this says it was like hearing a cry for help. I believe orcas, and all animals have feelings and we need to be much more conscious of this.
Watch blackfish on netflix, it will tell you more! I really hope one day all the orcas who have been abused and robbed of freedom will be put back in their rightful place- the ocean.
"The assumption that animals are without rights, and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance, is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."
