It's ridiculous to demonize SeaWorld because they're the easy target in a world of animal traffickers and actually abusive organizations keeping orcas and other wild animals for profit. They're big and mediagenic, so despite the fact that they're among the most ethical of these orgs, and they do some (hardly their primary mission, but they DO do it) actual conservation, conservation research, and even rehabilitation, it's the new fad to try to bring them down while giving the worst offenders a break from any media attention.
There is a fine line between keeping animals in captivity for purposes of education and behavioral and biological studies, and pure for-profit entertainment. Some animal rights activists would decry even places like the Seattle aquarium, which is about as heavily canted toward pure education and rehabilitation as you can get in that type of organization, just because they have animals in captivity. But like it or not, aquariums, zoos, etc. do provide entertainment as well as services that benefit the public, animals, and their ability to share the planet. SeaWorld pushes that line much further, with organized shows that in some cases (such as Shamu) have very little to do with any educational message. However, even in this kind of situation there is a huge benefit to people, especially kids, being captivated by an animal and having to think at some level about whether or not to automatically fear it, and whether it should be preserved for the sake of the environment and simply because it's a natural marvel. Other exhibits at their parks do more (not enough, IMO) to educate.
The people who want to demonize SeaWorld don't think about a lot of things. They don't ask what good SeaWorld does for the animals. For example, right now, they're caring for a baby walrus whose habitat was destroyed in Hurricane Sandy, found terrified in polluted and dangerous water. Years ago, when the MN Zoo had its irresponsible beluga exhibit, SeaWorld tried to save the poor, sick things from their caretakers.
But most of all, the people who want to simply end SeaWorld's shows don't want to think about the money. Just where is the money going to come from to care for the animals already there? Who's going to pay to get them transferred to other facilities? Guess what - there is NO WAY to return them successfully to the wild that anybody knows of. The Keiko attempt was not at all a success, despite the propagandists' rosy claims. That was ONE animal, and we're talking about dozens (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_captive_orcas for a list of the current captive orcas at various facilities). Who's going to have the money to build the facilities and pay for the rehabilitation over many years, and the research that will by nature go along with that? Nobody. The only chance there is for those animals is to keep them in the most responsible hands, and to work on increasing the educational content of the shows as they are slowly phased out, and making some very expensive, scientifically-sound attempts to learn whether it's truly possibly to reintegrate orcas and other large marine mammals.
So, if you want to do some actual GOOD for orcas versus the pocketbooks of the Blackfish propagandists and the egos of the no-brains-no-biology animal rights faction, don't support efforts like this. Instead, end the abuses of wild capture, ban additional capture, help bring more large marine animals out of facilities where they are terribly neglected and even mistreated into the hands of the fewer aquariums and other organizations that are capable of caring for them (and this includes SeaWorld, like it or not), demand that those who still have them do good educational programs and studies versus using them for pure entertainment, and phase out their use in entertainment over time.
This is not an easy issue that can be resolved with feel-good crap like this bill. Who will suffer for it? The animals they think they're protecting. If the show was banned today, what do they really think will happen to orcas in California? They won't be released, because there's nowhere to simply release them to. These animals don't know how to hunt, protect themselves in the wild, or socialize with wild pods. It's like the idiots who throw domestic cats or dogs into the street thinking that they'll do great on their own. Who's going to pay for years of rehabilitation that may never be successful? Or are those orcas just going to be traumatized further by being shipped off to another park, where they'll be even more crowded in the existing facilities, and still be part of a show? It's time to stop putting our touchy-feely attitudes ahead of the animals, and instead learn some biology and figure out a scientifically and economically viable way to do right by these creatures and their wild brethren.
= new reply since forum marked as read
