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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSeaWorld Puts Its Whales On Valium-Like Drug, Documents Show
Justin Carissimo
The theme park chain SeaWorld, already facing wide criticism from animal rights advocates, treats some of its marine mammals with psychoactive drugs, according to a document obtained by BuzzFeed.
Trainers give their orcas, also known as killer whales, the psychoactive drug benzodiazepine, according to the sworn affidavit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in a dispute between the park company and the rival company Marineland over the transport of a prized killer whale, Ikaika, to SeaWorld.
Benzodiazepines are a type of drug that includes the common human medications Valium and Xanax. The orcas mental health issues, SeaWorlds critics say, are a direct result of their keeping the mammals in captivity.
The questions about the drugs given to the whales, which also include a range of antibiotics, come as SeaWorld is reeling from a critical documentary. Blackfish tells the story of a killer whale named Tilikum, whos been accused of killing three people but is still retained by SeaWorld. Tilikums genes are found in 54% of the whales in SeaWorlds current whale collection, and has fathered at least 21 whales from artificial insemination.
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http://www.buzzfeed.com/justincarissimo/seaworld-puts-its-whales-on-valium-like-drug-documents-show
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)CFLDem
(2,083 posts)Whales seemed pretty happy this weekend...
Did you read the OP? These sentient beings are being pumped up with psychotrophic medications so they don't flip out due to the horrors of their enslavement!
Glimmer of Hope
(5,823 posts)HipChick
(25,485 posts)this shit just breaks my heart...
CFLDem
(2,083 posts)"Mammal eating whale eats mammal"
No surprise it got snubbed. Went to SeaWorld the next day just so I could marvel at Tilly in the flesh.
My favorite part, though, was seeing the pilot whales they were rehabilitating!
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)Sea World should stick to rehabilitation and end enslavement.
whopis01
(3,467 posts)I am amazed.
When I watched it I saw, amongst other things, the story of a whale that has been systematically abused for the majority of its life. Not merely by the humans keeping it in confinement but by the other whales that it is kept with. Male orcas do not normally spend their life in close contact with females in a pod. The females that tillikum was housed with repeatedly attempted to drive him away, raking him with their teeth, leaving gashes in his body on a regular basis. In the wild he would have kept his distance but he was given no choice.
Sea World spends an incredibley tiny portion of their revenue on rehabilitation efforts. And while they may help some they certainly shorten the lives of the orcas that they keep. Their whales barely live to be a quarter of the age that a whale in the wild lives to.
I understand people's fascination with seeing these animals. I get the desire. Full disclosure: I worked with sea world Orlando in the early 90s. I helped develop some of the transducer systems that they use to communicate with the whales. I actually thought back then I was doing something to help further research and discovery and the study of these creatures. I now know what a farce that was and it sickens me that I had anything to do with the cruelty that happens there.
CFLDem
(2,083 posts)I think it'd be really awesome to be a trainer.
But anyways I saw a Tilikum that was abused by sealand and rescued by SeaWorld.
I don't think it's perfect. I wish they would turn the lake they have at Orlando into a giant home for them.
But I think what they do is more good then harm. And I that's why I had the reaction I did.
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)I had the horrible feeling while reading it that those who die young at Sea Hell are the luck ones.
auntsue
(277 posts)Imagine spending all your time in you bathroom, and having to do a "trick" for every bit of food.
Glimmer of Hope
(5,823 posts)HipChick
(25,485 posts)has blood on their hands..
htuttle
(23,738 posts)I've imagined a lot of crazy stuff in my time, but I have to say that the thought of whales on drugs has never crossed my mind once before today.