Comments on: SeaWorld Sees Green

By: Kel

Kel — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:58:22 +0000

pam, i love your point because it is so simple yet so powerful — if people would stop attending, the shows would end. at that point, i would imagine concerned people could raise money to ensure the whales had some viable future. not sure what that is since i’m not an expert, but people smarter than me must have a suggestion. bueller….anyone…

By: Pam S

Pam S — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:15:34 +0000

Great post, Kel. I watched footage of the resumed show on the news last night and people in the audience were wiping away tears when they dedicated it to the deceased trainer – definitely a WTF moment for me. I was pretty surprised to see so many people in the audience. The clueless public attending these animal exploitation shows seem just as guilty to me as Sea World for supporting such a greedy and insensitive organization. If they stopped going they’d be no more shows, no more animals being mistreated, confined, and isolated, and therefore no humans dying senseless deaths.

By: Kel

Kel — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:12:08 +0000

this video just released. in 2006 osha warned seaworld that a trainer would be killed by a whale. the video shows two separate instances of trainers being put in life threatening situations by whales.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/03/02/kaye.osha.whale.report.cnn?hpt=C2

By: Kel

Kel — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:22:13 +0000

dexter, i also meant to thank you for the two links. i love the captain’s line: “no reasonable person would walk unescorted across the exercise yard of a maximum-security prison, and it is irresponsible to expect a frail human being to turn his or her back on a stressed-out, angry, captive orca – the most formidable predator on the planet.” very powerful analogy. thanks for taking the time to comment.

By: Kel

Kel — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:17:13 +0000

dexter, i am with you on all fronts — even the band camp comment. ha! there is no easy answer. the whales cannot be released and would probably die as a result of such a drastic action. and i greatly appreciate the number of people and families who would be impacted by job loss. like you, it just feels to me like they should have spent more time reflecting on the incident, reviewing policies/procedures and not committed to trainers going back in the tank until after a thorough investigation was 100% complete. also, amy’s comment above about seaworld labeling this as a “drowning” leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

By: Dexter

Dexter — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:32:43 +0000

Sea Shepard captain from Whale Wars TV show commenting on Sea World incident:

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-100225-1.html

By: Dexter

Dexter — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:28:33 +0000

Well – maybe the ‘story behind the story’ is what Sea World knows and has figured out. We (American public in general) have tiny attention spans. They know that in 2 weeks (maybe less) we will have completely forgotten the story. As Amy said above, if we were truly outraged, their stands would be empty. But my guess is that if we check in a month from now, their traffic numbers will be on par with last year. Not many businesses are willing to take a ‘moral’ stand and lose money on principle. In fact – you could make the argument that more innocent people would be hurt if they did shut it down – how many Sea World folks might get laid off, or have their hours cut in half if they shut the show down? Maybe that wouldn’t happen, but there are always unintended consequences.

That said – I would have liked them to get rid of that whale from public shows, and take a short hiatus – if for nothing else but out of respect for their trainer who died.

Last – I am no ‘tree hugger’ (well, there was that one time at band camp) – but if you want to see an entertaining show, check out Whale Wars on Discovery:
http://animal.discovery.com/tv/whale-wars/

By: Kel

Kel — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:04:01 +0000

amy, i agree. their use of the term “drowning” is absurd. she was drowned by a whale. she didn’t slip in the pool and drown. it really is pathetic.

By: Amy Bernstein

Amy Bernstein — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:05:18 +0000

I cannot believe Sea World is allowing this whale to resume shows. My guess is their tix sales are going to plummet, and I for one hope they do! At least then Sea World will realize they cannot simply move on as if nothing happened. I’m interested to see if the blogosphere and twittersphere produce some serious backlash on this issue and Sea World re-thinks their decision. Oh, and I think the really sick part of this is that Sea World is still trying to maintain their stance that it was a “drowning incident with a whale”. I mean, really?

By: Kel

Kel — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:25:32 +0000

deirdre, your comment about attracting a different audience is frightening and probably true. i feel terrible for the whales. they are being used so someone can make money. i can’t imagine the captive environment isn’t mentally abusive every second of every day. sigh.

By: Kel

Kel — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:21:40 +0000

janet, you bring up a great point. if seaworld’s motivation was really to raise awareness, social media would probably allow them to reach more people for a fraction of the cost of keeping the whales in captivity. it will be interesting to see what backlash they experience based on the “power to the people” web 2.0 world we live in.

By: Deirdre Perry

Deirdre Perry — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:39:56 +0000

I agree and think it is awful to resume the show so soon after the trajic event. IT even baffles me that they are resuming the show at all – with the same whale! The whale they are using for the show is clearly not safe to keep preforming with and should at least be given a break or not used in the shows. What trainer in their right mind would get back in the water with this whale anyways??
I think the show is now going to attrack a different audience in the way that people are using this killer whale (literally) as a spectacle – to go and see this animal that has been the cause of the deaths. I think some people are going to now go to the show in hopes to see an attack or the whale lash out during the performance.
The whale seems to be lashing out against his constraints- liek you said the large whale is supposed to roam freely in the ocean, not all cramped up in a small confined pool.
I think Sea World at least should have publicly adressed the problem, given the show at least a few weeks break, and should find a different whale and give Tilikum some time off

By: Janet Aronica

Janet Aronica — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:30:57 +0000

This is such a tragic situation, and yes, I agree with you that four days seems a little soon. I feel like you briefly touched on a really important piece of this whole thing, and that is the question of whether or not these animals should be in captivity at all. I read several articles that said that these whales basically never kill humans out in the wild, but there have been (albeit extremely rare and few) instances in which they show aggression to humans at places like Sea World…although this statement does seem a little Captain Obvious considering whales aren’t around humans in the wild but they are around humans at Sea World. Moreover, the popular argument for keeping these whales in “breeding programs” aka a glorified circus is that it raises public awareness for the plight of endangered species. But with the internet, so many people have access to information regarding that problem. There are so many new ways with social media to spread that kind of information and raise awareness. I’ve started to question the effectiveness and purpose of captivity, whale shows…the entire Sea World thing. I think there is no doubt that these places do raise awareness and draw public compassion to these issues, but given that there are so many other ways to do that now, do we need to hold wild animals like Tilikum in captivity anymore?