SeaWorld Puts Its Whales On Valium-Like Drug, Documents Show

[whopis01]

15. If you actually watched it and that is what you got out of it

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.