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Katherine Blackford (FGCU): Should Sea World keep their ‘killer whales’?
Last Wednesday at Sea World in Orlando Florida Dawn Brancheau was killed. She was the trainer and performer who worked with Shamu, the killer whale for the performances. Dawn Brancheau was putting on one of her acts when the orca grabbed her by her ponytail and dragged her under the water. This horrible incident occurred in front of her live audience at Sea World. “Shamu”, held her under the water for over forty minutes and played with her body as if it was a toy.
When I think of all the children and adults in the audience who witnessed this I feel sick. It will be a horrible memory that many of them will never forget as long as they live. Although “Shamu” brings in a lot of revenue for Sea World I strongly feel that the whale show needs to come to an end. The whale that killed Dawn has also killed two others before her. How many people must die before this is put to an end?
I don’t feel that whales should be kept in tanks and “trained” as if they are a harmless pet. First of all, no one can guarantee safety to the people who are working with these animals. It is not worth risking the lives of individuals for mere entertainment purposes. Secondly these animals should be left alone to live their life in peace in the ocean. When you put a wild animal in a tank they loose their ability to thrive in the wild. Another concern that I feel needs to be addressed is the fact that these orcas are being taken out of their natural habitat just for entertainment. What gives us this right? Would you want to be taken from your natural habitat and put on display?
3. March 2010 at 23:46
No, the whales should stay where they are. In Tilikiums case maybe he should be set free. But I don’t think thats right either. I also think Seaworld does a great job with their marine bioscience. i also think they are well taken care of at seaworld. i also know that Dawn was where she wanted to be. It was a horrible accident, but what happened. She was laying on a 4 foot shallow edge and tilikium came to her side and ended up taking her by her pongtail into the water. She worked with him for 8 years. Was he playing with her? was he having a bad day? Was it her fault in her training? We will never know how to answer this, but seaworld is doing more research behind the attack to fiqure it out. Otherwise they are making apprioate saftey measure by keeping the trainers out of the water for now.
9. March 2010 at 01:27
Marietta (FGCU):
First of all, if you eliminate one factor based on the outcome of death, most everything would be recalled. Guns, cars, airplanes, food (choking), alcohol, cigarettes, medicines, motorcycles, pool, bathtubs, dogs, snakes, bugs, plants, ect, are all responsible for unnatural deaths. Eliminating these items is unpractical and absurd. Instead, we should study the situations, and educate people how to prevent unwanted outcomes such as death.
Second, you cannot place an animal of any size or ferociousness into the wild after they have been in captivity. When this is done, the animal most always dies. They are unable and lack the skills that “wild” animals of that species have, and cannot adapt to the extreme change in environments. Often times animals used to in shows or found in zoos are born in captivity. Very rarely are these animals taken from their natural habitat and those that are, usually are incapable of living without human health. In this case specifically, placing an orca back into the wild would result in a loss all around: loss in education of animals in captivity, loss in money, and loss an animal’s life.
Lastly, it is the trainer’s choice to work with the animals that they do. They are not being forced to do so and are probably very happy doing so. If for some reason, some freak accident happens, well that’s natural. Everything can’t go smoothly all the time. Also, the trainers know what their animals can do. If the trainer still chooses to that is their decision. They go through training learning dos and don’ts, as well as qualifications they need to obtain their job. They are not just thrown into a whale tank and told to make it perform.
Personally, I am looking to be an Orca trainer in my future. If something like this happened to me I would not want the whale to be put to death or treated inhumanly. As unfortunate as me dying would be, in the end it was my choice and my actions that caused the event to take place. Knowing that I had a chance at my dream job and was happy with my choice I can’t imagine this being a terrible death, a freak death, an unwanted death, but definitely a risk worth taking.
9. March 2010 at 01:35
My advice would be to get actual facts before blogging…
1) the whale was not preforming in a show at the time so there was no one in the audiance
2) the animals are not taken from the wild they are born in captivity
3) humans die after 4 minutes without oxygen so the other 36 minutes did not effect the trainer
4) thats how orcas play and eat they are animals and have animal instincts, they are large and more powerful than humans. Being in their tank is a choice. maybe not the smartest but the humans choice none the less