SeaWorld Makes a Splash With Announcement, but Its Commitment is Hardly Black and White
We urge SeaWorld to phase out orca acts at all of its facilities, to end its breeding program, and to work with The HSUS on a plan to put the orcas in suitable environments. Above, an orca in the wild. Photo by iStockphoto
SeaWorld says it is ending its “theatrical” orca shows at its San Diego facility next year, but no one from the company is yet saying what will happen to the orcas. And there’s no announcement about similar changes at sister theme parks in San Antonio and in Orlando, the facility made infamous when SeaWorld’s largest whale, Tilikum, killed trainer Dawn Brancheau in front of a packed house at Shamu Stadium.
The marine park has held out the possibility of a new show featuring the orcas in a “natural setting,” but no one is quite sure what that means. We urge SeaWorld to make its pledge more explicit and to phase out orca acts at all of its facilities, to end its breeding program, and to work with us on a plan to put the orcas in suitable environments. This announcement is not nearly as straightforward as the Ringling Bros. announcement eight months ago to phase out its traveling elephant acts within three years.
The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration has already barred SeaWorld trainers from getting into the pools with the orcas, and that action came in the wake of the Orlando incident that claimed Brancheau’s life and also triggered the publication of David’ Kirby’s Death at SeaWorld and the production of Blackfish, the documentary that has upended SeaWorld’s business model in a dramatic way after serial showings on CNN.
Last month, the California Coastal Commission approved a permit to expand the size of the tanks at SeaWorld’s San Diego facility, but stipulated that SeaWorld had to stop breeding and could not import other whales to perform – effectively sunsetting the orca acts (SeaWorld vowed to appeal). Last week, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-CA, announced he will introduce legislation to phase out the use of orcas in aquarium acts.
All of these actions, along with SeaWorld’s defensive maneuvers to preserve its brand, are indicators that society is taking intentional steps toward ending the era of using the most highly intelligent animals in silly and dangerous performances. SeaWorld has a chance to give today’s announcement real teeth and we hope the company does so.
Natural setting be damned – the only “natural setting” would be to set them FREE!
So they can get sick, because their bodies are not used to being in natural ocean, and haven’t for a few generations? Or so they can starve, if they can’t handle hunting? Or so they can drift around podless? But hey, at least they’ll be free right? Worked great for Keiko.
I was hoping that Sea World would just arrange to have the seaside pens built here in Washington state where most of the original Orca’s were kidnapped from in the 60’s. That way if any of the Orca’s from that era are still alive they might be able to connect with members of their old pod if any of them are still living. Sea World will fight to the death to keep the Orca’s they have in the chlorine contaminated swimming pools until all of them die. There are people out there that will go to see the shows no matter how the Orca’s are treated which is sad.
PETA suggests releasing the orcas into the wild. What better way to kill all the captive whales than to release them into the wild. Did anyone follow the Free Willy laughable attempt at releasing a captive whale. If PETA worships the Orcas so much then why sentence them to death? No more whale shows, yes. No more whales and dolphins captured, yes. No more whales and dolphins bred in captivity, yes. Releasing captive whales and dolphins into the wild,no!
I don’t want the whales to die…They can’t be released- but if they no longer use Tillicum’s sperm and no longer breed him ,. no longer capturing whales and dolphins no longer have the shows – it is certainly better than what they have been doing…Releasing them is NOT an option…