Whales in Captivity What would do if you got attacked by a killer whale? In many situations, orca whales have been attacking trainers, but was it the trainers, or the whales fault? The whales get squirmy, and aggressive, they are better off in the wild, and the whales hurt people. Some people think that the shows are cool, but they are all the same, and the whales are treated with care they aren’t. Keeping animals like orca whales held captive like in Seaworld should be abolished. First off why holding animals captive should be abolished is that the whales get squirmy like a worm when you pick it up. One whale was was wagging his tail because he was squirmy and then hit a trainers leg and it broke. This shows that when the whale was aggressive …show more content…
and squirmy and wanted to get away from the trainer. Also the whale wagging his tail, a sign of being squirmy. Lastly, the whale was in a cement aquarium, a place where no whale wants to be. More evidence is Trainer Larry Smith got bitten in the head. The trainer was messing with the whale then he got bit. This shows that the whales get squirmy and want to hurt. When you mess around with an animal, bad things are bound to happen . A whale bit a trainers leg after jumping into the pool. The whale got scared and then bit the trainer. The trainer was trying to work with the whale and didn't intent to scare it off. Unfortunately, the whale then bit the trainer. After the commotion the trainer was ok ("Incidents between Humans and Killer Whales in Captivity -a Longer List than the Parks Would like to Tell You!"). While some people say the shows are great to watch, the trainers actually can't get into the with the whales because its too dangerous. For example, the trainers haven't been in the water with the whales since the accident in 2010 (Gallucci). Judges will decide if trainers are allowed to re-swim with whales due to deadly encounters. Trainers can still feed the animals, but they can’t climb into the water. The trainers can’t train the whales for new tricks because they aren’t allowed to swim with them in the water. The whales just practice alone so why waste your time watching the old tricks? Another reason is that the whales are better off in the wild is it shows depression when in captivity.
Some times, when the trainers are training the whales, they don't want to participate and can storm off. This shows that they are depressed because they get frustrated. The whales also are sad because they aren’t with their family. Next, the whales are sad because they aren’t treated correctly while captive. There is no way a phacility can provide for whales. These whales need to be helped to the fullest while being held captive and that is not possible. The whales need to be in nature. This is because they don’t like being stuck in the concrete cages (Davis). Lastly, whales need to live in nature because of the family and other animals in these areas. They can’t use their echolocation in the tanks. They can’t tell where they using other fish. The whales use echolocation to move around in the ocean from other fish. The echolocation lets the whales know when they will bump into other animals. Lastly they know how to get back to their home with it …show more content…
(PBS). While some people say that the whales are treated with more care than in the ocean, the whales aren’t treated with care. Another example is the whales suffer and have been treated poorly since they have held captive. Some examples are that they put black zinc oxide on the whale sunburns, the whales were kidnapped, if they aren't captured correctly, they can die. The average age is decreased when held captive. This shows that when the whales are held captive, the are treated mostly without care. All sea word does is hate on their animals ("10 Things You Didn't Know About SeaWorld - SeaWorld of Hurt"). Lastly, another way to show that whales are better off non-captive is trainers get hurt by the whales.
Many times a year, a whale will hurt or kill a trainer. One way to prove this is A lady broke her arm while caring for them. In the movie ‘Blackfish’ it shows a documentary of when Shamu a whale broke the trainers arm while in captivity. This shows that the whales get squirmy and want to hurt. Shamu was getting fed and then she went bezerk and took her. Luckily for the trainer, she only broke her arm and it wasn't life threatening. Another is a orca pressed a trainers leg against the wall of a pool after being frustrated. The trainer wanted the whale to do a trick and then the whale got pushy. This shows that trainers push the whales to do tricks that they don’t want to do. Then the whale gets frustrated and soon does something to a trainer. This act could lead to an unfortunate event. The last way to show this is a whale snapped her jaws at a trainer while cleaning her pool. A trainer was just minding her business and then snap. Overall, animals can get upset with the trainers and do these events. When the event happens these places get bad recognition and is bad for them. The whales just want to be let free and not be treated bad ("Incidents between Humans and Killer Whales in Captivity -a Longer List than the Parks Would like to Tell
You!"). Overall, holding whales in captivity should be abolished. This is because, they are better off in the wild, they hurt trainers, and the whales show aggression. This is important because it is damaging the population of the whales, and the whales can hurt trainers severely. Next time you are in Florida, skip seaworld!
These killer whales are massive creatures living in these cramped pools not doing what they want to do when they want to do it. Mr. Jett and Mr. Ventre also said “...Typically spending their entire lives within tight family groupings, orcas captured from the wild, have been traumatically extracted from the security, comfort and mentoring which these groupings provide. Captured animals are confined to small, acoustically-dead, concrete enclosures where they must live in extremely close proximity to other whales with which they often share no ancestral, cultural or communication similarities.” Seaworld ends up throwing these animals in random groups of whales that are not their families, having whales that have never been outside of the concrete wall, to whales that all they know is the wild. The Documentary Blackfish states that one of the killer whale
Since whales are normally peaceful in the wild and they only seem to attack while in captivity, the argument is that captivity is wrong and dangerous for killer whales. This argument is supported by detailed facts about how the whales are tortured and agitated by other whales with no outlet. Both female and male whales are confined to a swimming pool where they are in a way being forced to try and mate. The female whales tend to abuse the male whales, which leads the whales to become mentally and physically unhealthy resulting in attacks on trainer. In the interviews with Corinne Cowell and Nadine Kallen, they mentioned that when they visited Sealand of the Pacific that three whales were confined to a “dingy pool”. Another appeal to pathos is when a neurologist that has studied killer whales mentions how the animals are very intelligent and are well-aware of what is going on around them. (SeaWorld) Killer whales have similar brains to humans, but have a bigger part of their brain where emotions are processed. With this, whales are more aware of their emotions and the bonds they make with humans and other animals. (SeaWorld) With the huge amount of raw footage, first-hand accounts, and true information, the film is able to grasp the attention of the viewers with the amount of emotion that is shown from the former trainers and the whales themselves. With these tactics, the film effectively appeals to the
SeaWorld also claims that the whales being kept there are treated humanely and are in no way unhappy. Although Cowperthwaite’s film clearly explains that that is a far cry from the truth with many trainers saying that the whales were often bullied by others which left them with painful rake marks that are created by teeth scraping against the whales skin. If whales did not perform a trick properly they would not be given food which left the whales hungry and extremely agitated. Behind the scenes footages shows whales being attacked by others with one whale even breaking its own jaw which led to an artery becoming severed and the bled out and died shortly after.
Out of the 156 whales they have taken into captivity from the wild, 129 are dead. Including orcas bred within SeaWorld, at least 165 have died in their facilities (Schelling). Another falsehood SeaWorld claims is that collapsed dorsal fins are completely normal and common of all male orcas. It is actually quite rare to find in the wild, while every single one of their male whales has a collapsed dorsal fin (“8 Shocking Facts…”). SeaWorld also guarantees that they never separate a calf from its mother and even have posted a picture of a baby and its mother as proof. What they didn’t tell the public was that soon after that picture was posted they shipped the calf off to Spain alone to a different park. A past trainer even said that there had been at least 19 separations of mother and calf that he knew of at his location. All of these factors previously stated added up have a large influence on the whales mentally. Many whales are afflicted by psychosis and anxiety and in turn are given drugs such as Valium to keep them performing in shows. There have been various occasions, often swept under the rug by SeaWorld and away from the public eye, where the drugs didn’t work enough (Schelling). There
Do you think the people of Sea Land and Sea World mentally injured the whales by taking them from their natural habitat? There were men sent on large sea boats and men in helicopters with some device that scans the water to locate the whales. Then once they track the whales they use the boats to separate the females and young ones from the males to try to abduct the youngest whales. People who cares about
Millions of people come from across the world to visit Seaworld every day without thinking about the lives of the animals behind the scenes. Why would they have concerns? From Seaworld’s commercials to the website, they convince the general public that Seaworld is the place to go to see the happy sea animals perform. If Seaworld is such an ecstatic place, what excuse does Tilikum, their greatest well known orca whale, have for the three attacks on trainers? The documentary “Blackfish” was created by the director Gabriela Cowperthwaite because she questioned herself after realizing Tilikum's odd behavior over time in captivity, and if there was any indisputable parts to animal captivity?
"Imagine if the world you lived in, the space you breathed in, and the freedom you played in were suddenly taken away from you." (Free Willy)
Should killer whales be kept in captivity? Killer whales are mammals that travel in schools. These mammals eat large fish, seals, and even other whales. Killer whales can be dangerous, and are really big animals. When looking at all the evidence about killer whales in SeaWorld, laws and actions need to be enforced with this dangerous activity.
Suppose you were kidnapped from your family as a child by an alien species while your family watched in despair, crying out helplessly for your kidnappers to not rip you away from them. Now imagine then being strapped down and transported to a place unknown and once you arrive, you see that some of the other children that were also kidnapped have died. You then witness something that will forever remain engraved into your mind; you witness those monsters that took you hostage cut the children open, fill their bodies up with rocks, tie an anchor onto their feet and throw them into the ocean. The monsters then throw you into a tiny cage; you learn that you will not only never see your family again and die in that confinement but you will also work for these monsters and perform as a source of entertainment for them. You spend every night locked away into an even smaller steel cage that gives no freedom of movement at all and aren’t fed if you displease your new masters. Although this sounds like an outline for a horror movie, it is not. It is happening in real life and in our world. It is horrific, not only unethical but inhumane. This depicts the capturing process and life in captivity for public display of Orcinus Orcas, popularly known as Killer Whales since 1961. Although some laws regarding the capturing of whales have changed, whales are still being treated unethically. Just as inhumane as it is for this to be done to humans, it is equally inhumane for it to be done to animals. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, inhumanity is “the quality or stage of being cruel to other people or to animals” (dictionary.com) and that is what their captivity is...
I think that killer whale shows should be banned because killer whales can protect themselves in the wild,they can lose natural abilities to hunt and feed themselves, and that killer whale shows can ruin the population of killer whales. My first reason is that, that killer whales could protect themselves in the wild because from a website called “animals.mom.me,” it said that “Orcas in the wild have an average life expectancy of 30 to 50 years-their estimated maximum lifespan is 60 to 70 years for males and 80 to over 100 years for females. The average age of death for orcas that have lived in seaworld is 13 years old.” So this shows that if you do not capture orcas (killer whales), they will have a longer life span because they can protect themselves in the wild and can survive much longer than 13 years in an aquarium.
Captivity is the state or period of being imprisoned, confined, or enslaved, according to Wiktionary. Every year, marine parks and aquariums, like SeaWorld, make billions of dollars through ticket sales. SeaWorld estimates about 70% of their total revenue is due to their performing killer whales (Jeffs). People visit from all over the world to encounter killer whales up close. “Their beauty and power, combined with willingness to work with humans, have made them legendary performers” (Gorman). In recent years, humans have gained the ability to tame and train these creatures. Killer whales should not be kept in captivity simply because it is cruel, unnatural, and dangerous.
To this day there is no record of any whale doing harm to a human in the wild. Whales have extremely advanced brains even similar to humans. They can process emotions and feelings so they are very aware of what is happening to them. By nature whales are not aggressive or harmful to humans but when pushed they will react in a very dangerous way. Particulary in Tilicums case he was abused by the female whales, they would rub their teeth on him and many times there was blood. Because of this Sea World would put him by himself away from the other animals, this no doubt contributed to his behavior. There was no where for him to go, he was extremely large and where he was kept was not a conducive environment. Before Tilicum killed one of Sea Worlds trainers there was an incident where he jumped out and tried to pull a trainer, Sea World was now aware of how Tilicum acted and...
An orca, more commonly known as a killer whale, is currently one of the largest marine animals held in captivity. Countless arguments are being made, supporting and opposing captivity of orcas to be exploited as circus animals in theme parks around the world. Throughout recent history, Sea World trainers have been injured and killed by the orcas and the whales, and the whales themselves have been observed as severely depressed. If Sea World releases the whales, they would undergo an immense economic downfall and the whales would be too weak to survive in the wild if they were freed. Since the first Sea World park opened in San Diego, California in 1964, common questions have arose concerning the well-being of orcas in captivity, the dangers of humans training them, the physical capability of whales theoretically being released, and the psychological differences between whales living in the wild versus whales living in Sea World's confinement.
And this isn’t the only time a captive animal has turned on its trainer. Working with a predator that kills even when it’s not hunting is taking a risk lions can be trained but they cannot be tamed. in 2010 two lions turned on their trainer Oleksie Pinko during a show in the Ukraine, Pinko walked away with only minor injuries. No matter how long you work with exotic animals they will always be unpredictable and dangerous, Roy Horn of the Siegfried and Roy duo worked with tigers for most of his life, but however in 2003 Roy was attacked by a seven year old white tiger named Montecore. In 2008, a liger at Safari's Animal Sanctuary in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma killed a volunteer, thirty-two year old Peter Getz.
The reasons that animals are held in captivity could favor some people and others not. Animals in captivity are usually held for entertainment, education, research, and conservation purposes. The other major reason they are held in captive is the process of rehabilitation. The article, Ethical Issues, defines rehabilitation as the treatment of wild animals found injured or ill, taken into captivity until restored to full health and then returned to the wild. Then when the animal is released they are then able to live freely in their own habitat. Although this may lead to suffering and stress or even death for the animal. The animal is so dependent on their caretaker that once they are put into the wild they do poorly (1).