Captive Orcas At Seaworld

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Picture yourself spending the day with your family when, all of a sudden, an abrupt, deafening sound alerts everyone. You hear loud wails and you are oblivious to what is happening. You are held captive with your siblings and your parents are nowhere to be found. You cluelessly call for your parents, only to find out that you are going to be thousands of miles away from them. This is what orcas in the early 1970s faced. According to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, at least one hundred sixty-five orcas have died in captivity. Forty-eight orcas have died at SeaWorld and this does not include the thirty miscarried or stillborn calves. Contrary to the deceiving statements affirmed by SeaWorld, they do not prioritize rehabilitation, …show more content…
In the wild, male orcas can live as long as seventy years while female orcas can live up to an astonishing one hundred years. Captive orcas at SeaWorld only live an average of 14 years which is a heartbreaking difference. These orcas are trained to perform for the unnoticeable pleasure of young children and their families. In the documentary, “Blackfish,” multiple SeaWorld employees manipulated the truth and stated that orcas only live twenty-five to thirty-five years in the wild and that they live longer in SeaWorld because of the veterinary care. Orca researcher Howard Garrett contradicts them and says that after half a dozen years of research in 1980, they live equivalent to human lifespans (Blackfish). This just shows how SeaWorld is secretive and manipulative to hide the fact that all of their orcas have drastically different lifespans. Wild orcas start the process of breeding at the age of almost fifteen years. When compared to SeaWorld’s former breeding program, it begins from as young as nine years. Within the theme parks, orcas are kept continuously breeding by artificial insemination, and some are tragically bred with genetically close individuals. This means SeaWorld’s orcas are inbred. This leads to the mother of the potential calf refusing to raise them. Without survival skills taught by their parents, orca calves have a small chance of defending themselves and can potentially die. Another …show more content…
If you were forced to live in a small enclosure for the rest of your life, you would always be distressed. Many orcas at SeaWorld were on daily drugs to treat this chronic stress. Orcas are given antipsychotics to decrease testosterone and benzodiazepines to control the orcas (Hargrove et. al. pg 1). Antipsychotics are drugs that are used to treat schizophrenia, severe depression, and severe anxiety. Orcas in captivity face these problems and get little to no help with their conditions. In the wild, orcas, unquestionably, do not receive drugs to relieve themselves from these complications. Trainers in orca tanks risk being unable to conceive if contraceptives, a drug that is used to control or prevent pregnancies in female orcas, come into contact with a female trainer. This proves that drugs given in captivity not only affects the orcas, but also SeaWorld trainers. Although it is understandable that SeaWorld tries to contribute to the human understanding of these animals, it is nothing to be proud of. Antibiotics are given to orcas to prevent tooth infections that they obtain from damaging their teeth on the concrete surfaces inside the tanks. In return, the antibiotics given makes them susceptible to fungal infections and then they are given antifungal medicine (Berg et. al. pg 1). On February 24, 2010 before the Dine with Shamu show, a guest at SeaWorld noticed how Tilikum was agitated.
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