PETA calls out SeaWorld after another orca dies in captivity

[Judi Lynn]

Source: 9NEWS

4:41pm December 22, 2015

PETA calls out SeaWorld after another orca dies in captivity

By 9NEWS

Animals rights group PETA has lashed out at SeaWorld after the water park announced the death of one of its whales – allegedly the 38th orca to die at the San Antonio facility.

A killer whale named Unna died at the park after suffering from a fungal infection for months.

“Unna is the 38th orca used by #SeaWorld to die far short of how long she was expected to live,” PETA wrote on Twitter.

“PETA is calling on #SeaWorld to stop sentencing orcas to miserable lives of deprivation in dismal tanks.

Read more: http://www.9news.com.au/world/2015/12/22/16/41/peta-calls-out-seaworld-after-another-orca-dies-in-captivity#D2Pe4iXsIyFVQCqC.99

[trillion]

1. I agree with Peta on the Sea World Orcas.

This article is a tear jerker.

[blackspade]

2. Sea world does PT Barnum proud....

[valerief]

3. Well, you know what this means. No, not that Seaworld will treat orcas better but that

we'll get more "Ain't Seaworld Wonderful?" commercials.

[navarth]

4. And more posters attacking PETA...to which I say

fuck them. But I digress.

(on edit) I didn't mean you.

[valerief]

6. Didn't think you meant me.

[Xithras]

5. For those wanting more info about how the whale died.

This blog post has more information about what happened to her. Pardon the source, but it's the only place I could find that has this information. It sounds like Seaworld is possibly having an issue with superbugs, because Unna was killed by an aggressive candida infection (very common) that was resistant to antibiotics.

http://seaworldcares.com/2015/09/killer-whale-treatment-seaworld/

While we humans tend to worry about ourselves when we talk about superbugs, it's easy to forget that resistances are also growing in OTHER animals that we treat with antibiotics...including zoo and aquarium animals. The rise of more aggressive infections in captive animals raises some very real questions about our ability to ever return these animals to the wild. Infections like this in wild populations, that have no resistances to the diseases, could be catastrophic.