Anyone who has gone to SeaWorld has had a positive experience getting to view all the beautiful animals that are kept in captivity. Most people don't see the animals being deprived of a good, fulfilled lives.
Orcas in the wild lives span, for females, approximately a hundred years whereas a male lives between fifty and sixty years old. In captivity a female lives approximately up to twenty-nine years old whereas a male lives up to seventeen years old (EOL).
How do we allow for such a beautiful creature to lose most of their lifetime to become entertainment animals?
The 2013 film Blackfish depicts the controversy of capturing orca whales and using them for entertainment purposes. The main orca used through the beginning of the SeaWorld process is the infamous Tilikum. Tilikum has changed the face of the marine-animal entertainment industry and not for the better. This particular whale is currently thirty-four years old and weighs six-tons. He was found off the coast of Iceland only being two years old. He was already 11.5 feet in length according to the documentary and has grown up to 16 feet. This particular animal has developed so many relationships with his trainers that his aggression really should not come as a surprise.
Tilikum had attacked a young girl, Keltie Byrne, a 21 year-old part-time trainer. She had fallen into their tank and Tilikum as well as the two other Orcas he was in the tank with submerged her, preventing her from surfacing until she drowned. Nearly a year later, Tilly was transferred to SeaWorld. Many more accidents were to come within the next twenty years but the specific "accident" that changed the way people think about keeping orcas in captivity was the killing of Dawn Brancheau.
Dawn Brancheau was a senior trainer associated with SeaWorld in Florida and was widely known throughout the industry. Tilly was displaying frustrated behaviors that day during the performance, and according to one-on-one accounts with SeaWorld trainers that she had hope to go and have a "relationship session" with him where he would grab her arm and killed her.
SeaWorld company had attempted to bestow the blame on this deceased trainer; "That was her mistake," Thad Lacinak said for turning the orca's form of aggression to a subtle mistake the trainer could of potentially made. This women who was killed by the frustrated Tilikum was not killed by drowning but in addition was killed with blunt force trauma.
These behaviors should not be defended by anyone. In fear of killing the industry, representatives protect this corrupt business that prevent these whales from getting the proper stimulation they require. Tilikum has been bred with 21 different females and had conceived approximately 20 different calves throughout his lifetime. His lineage has not only grown but his aggressive traits are being passed on throughout the lineage. Accidents with the SeaWorld whales have occurred and was associated with the death of Alexis Martinez in Loro Parque, Spain.
Tilikum is now extremely ill at his age. Last month it was announced that Tilikum has a lung infection that was caused by a rare bacteria. He is rarely featured in shows anymore, and when he is displayed it is usually for bows. Is it fair for an animal to die in this way? Is it our place to determine whether another animals life should be left in an enclosed water tank where they should be swimming the open sea? These animals were being taken from different areas of the world at such a young age that each orca has cultural differences and are unable to communicate by dialect just the same as humans.
Stop supporting them, because if you keep going and entertaining the industry, well then that makes you a by-stander; And by-standers are no better than the bullies committing the act.
