Killer Whales Should Not Be Kept Captivity

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Imagine seeing a majestic killer whale floating at the bottom of its pool—depressed. Tapping on the glass does not stir this gigantic friendly beast. Every once in a while she will make her whistling and calling noises. This killer whale, named Katina, and her infant killer whale was taken away from her (Kirby 43). Katina was separated from her new calf because the calf was acting out during shows. Kalina’s family pod was broken, leaving Katina alone and depressed in her pool. Katina would call out to her Kalina, but nothing would subdue her sadness (112). Killer whales should not be kept in captivity because captivity not only leads to aggressive behavior and emotional anguish of the whales, but also injuries, and furthermore deaths of the trainers. The leading captor of whales is the once family friendly SeaWorld. SeaWorld’s humble beginnings were started by a group of men named George Millay, Milt Shedd, Ken Norris and David DeMott. Their dream was to build an underwater restaurant, however, that dream transformed into a marine zoological park, expanding twenty-one acres of Mission Bay in San Diego. Their new plan was driven by $1.5 million, forty-five personnel, and many other variations of aquatic life. SeaWorld was visited by 400,000 tourist their first year. As of 2014, SeaWorld has expanded their locations to Orlando, Florida and San Antonio, Texas (“History”). The orcas’ aggressive tendencies have led to many injuries and even deaths of trainers. SeaWorld’s trainers were trained to perform with and feed the killer whales. The whales are rewarded for each “behavior” they do correctly (Kirby 9). When the amount of fish they are receiving starts to dwindle and they hear the trainers’ hands hitting the bottom of the bucket... ... middle of paper ... ... home at SeaWorld and they deserve to have a place to call home. In conclusion, SeaWorld’s negligence to inform their employees resulted in dead orcas and dead people. Ways the nation can help cease this barbaric culture of watching animals in their sad aquariums is to legislate that imprisoning animals is wrong. The first step to do this is stop paying to see animals in zoos and aquariums. The next step is to write the country’s Congressmen and force them to make imprisoning animals for profit illegal—for Tilikum, other killer whales like him, and in memory of those like Dawn Brancheau. The last step would be to release all the healthy orcas back into the ocean, and the older whales can be released into a marine animal sanctuary where the orcas can live out their remaining days. Aquariums and zoos, like SeaWorld, should be shut down and have their animals released.

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