As most of you already know by now, an orca trainer at Seaworld Orlando was killed by one of the star whales there, Tillikum.
A quick debriefing for those of you who aren't up to speed on the story: the trainer had just finished explaining to the audience what they would see during the performance. At that point, the whale came up from the water and grabbed the woman. Tillikum got pretty aggressive with her and thrashed her pretty violently.
OK SO GET REAL PEOPLE. Orca whales are not freaking puppies, they are are not even comparable to fish. The same way it is wrong to keep a human in "captivity" i.e. human trafficking, etc. it is unethical to capture an orca whale from the wild and keep it as your "pet." In fact, despite the fact that they are called "whales," mainly because of their large size, orcas are actually part of the dolphin family, not the whale family. They are far more intelligent than whales. Why do you think humpback whales can't audition for "Free Willy??"
Dolphins are highly intelligent creatures, in fact if you look up recent studies, they are ranked 2nd to humans in intelligence. Since orcas are in the dolphin family, that means that they are on that intelligence level. And anyone who has gotten to learn about or know an orca up close and personally, are well aware that they are in fact, VERY intelligent creatures. Ever since I was young, I had an undying passion for orcas. By the way, Orca is the correct name for what most people to refer to as the Killer Whale. You know, more humans kill humans daily than "killer" whales have killed humans ever! In fact, humans kill more living things in general on a daily basis than the entire orca species.
So i'd say humans are the real killers. I think we should rename humans as "killer humans." It's more fitting. If you have killed ANY living thing, you are officially a killer human. Welcome to the wonderful world of hypocritical homo sapiens. Yes, flies, ants, mosquitoes, cockroaches count. Unless you are a vegetarian and seriously haven't killed a single living thing in your ENTIRE life, than you are a killer human. And if you are, then, yay for you.
Think about it this way: we are what the size of a mouse is to us, to a damned "killer whale." For those who need help on analogies being broken down: Human is to mouse, as Orca is to Human. How would a human feel if Stewart Little decided to capture them and make them do tricks all day long and live in a box? That would never happen because humans are far more AGGRESSIVE than those innocent orca whales, such as Tillikum. In fact humans would have killed lil ole Stewart Little before he ever got a chance to teach them how to "splash." You get the point---hopefully. Yet the orcas never did that to their captors, and guess what, they were more than capable of doing so. You jump in a tank with a 6 ton creature, where they can swim faster and more swiftly than you, and HELLO they're 6-8 TONS, they can easily kill you. Let me spell out 6 tons real quickly. A ton = 2000lbs.6 tons = 12,000 lbs. A human, averages around 160lbs. 12,000/160 = 75. So a "killer whale" weighs 75 times more than humans do. In my case, they would weigh about 100 times more. As well as the female trainer's case.
Now, Seaworld is not entirely stupid, do not let them fool you about their stance on this matter. The executives at sea world are WELL AWARE of the consequences of housing orca whales in their exhibits. But for decades now, this grand creature has rung in billions of dollars of revenue for them. In fact, that is the trade mark of seaworld, the killer whale!!! Yet, the heartless executives in corporate at seaworld decided to put rollercoasters in the same park in which they house the orcas. Now orcas can hear over 10 times better than humans. Think about being in a tank and hearing the rumbling of the 3 rollercoasters at sea world every day of your life. FYL tillikum, I feel you bro. Sea world was very knowledgeable of the fact that these creatures as well as the other marine creatures they house at their exhibit, have this increased sensory feature. In fact they provide all the facts just in case you thought they didn’t know: http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/killer-whale/senses.htm.
In fact, seaworld brought in even more educated professionals to train the orcas, work with them, and observe them from the very beginning of the theme park. Don’t think for a minute that they were not aware of its aggressive tendencies. Executives are not going to bring an animal onsite without knowing the advantages and disadvantages. From a corporate standpoint, it was very advantageous to import the whales. They are what raked in the main revenue for the park, and if a person was to be killed every few years, then so what? That’s not at all that big of a loss if you compare it in numbers.
Russ Rector, a former dolphin trainer in
"Captivity is abusive to these animals. And the abuse mounts up. And when these animals snap -- just for a minute -- they're so big and can be so dangerous that it's like a shotgun," Rector said. "It does an incredible amount of damage in just a moment."
And ladies and gentlemen, I promise you, the execs up in sea world already knew this. In fact, anyone with COMMON SENSE already knows this. Remember the 6 tons versus 160lbs talk we had earlier? Yeah, I would have to allocate that as common sense.
Anyways, I think I’ve ranted enough about sea world for today. There’s so much more to say, and even today I didn’t know where to start. But just a few facts can make a world of difference in this harsh, cruel, inhumane world.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/healthcare/a/tallbutfat.htm
http://news.discovery.com/animals/dolphins-smarter-brain-function.html
Many have asked why free the whales from a theme park when its such an awesome show.
ReplyDeleteThese incredibly intelligent creatures were captured and sold for profit to theme parks or according to the theme parks "rescued ". This marvelous rescue consists of relocation to an environment completely alien to their natural habitat. Why were they not rehabilitated back into the ocean? Maybe its because the ocean has become a big mass of boiling toxic liquid unfit for live animals so we have to make do with keeping them alive in a tank at the kindly theme parks' facilities.
Or could it simply be that the profit margin potential for this type of exhibit is more than enough to justify keeping these majestic animals in captivity? These animals are intelligent enough to experience the loss of separation from their pods. Imagine if you can, captured and sold off away from your home, then kept in captivity for the entertainment of others.
What are the possibility of this happening to human beings one day? Oh but what am I saying ? Its happened already! Remember the African Slavery over 200 years ago? There is an entire nation still recovering from that. To this day,their exists human beings still trying to find members of their families or locate their heritage. Then there are the present day human beings who are continously being captured from their cities, towns, villages, streets and homes. They are being sold for profit and entertainment into prostitution or unpaid labor camps . They are taken away from everything familiar or should I say their habitat? This is what we call Human Trafficking!
It is wonderful today to see society involved in the fight against this souless act affecting human beings.
But how hard is it for most of us to recognize that the very same act is being perpetuated against these whales? Why is it hard for us to find some empathy for these animals' plight?
Is it simply because its happening to another species? This perspective has not worked in the past for us and continues to prevent us from eradicating captivity of any kind! You can't pull yourself out of a bad situation unless you are willing to change.
Its like the late Michael Jackson's song "Man In The Mirror" . There is so much trouble in the world and so many things needing to change. The lyric says "if you want to make the world a better place take a look at your self and make a change; We may not always be successful in changing the world or even people around us who bring negativity into our lives but we can change OURSELVES and the way WE respond to situations.