Imagine if the word you lived in, space you breathed in, and freedom you played in was all suddenly taken away from you.
Killer Whales are kidnapped, usually from a young age, and taken away to be tortured for the pleasure of an audience at Sea World. The experience these Killer whales undergo cause extremely poor health in whales, including dorsal fin collapse as well as various skin conditions. Killer Whales are an incredibly intelligent species, “They've got their own languages and they do actually create friends … they create bonds, they develop very distinctive hunting techniques that are adapted to the environment.' The debate around captivity in Sea world has been going for a while, however, This controversial topic really sparked a lot of interest in 2013 after the death of Killer whale Tilikum.
Tilikum is well known for his prolonged time in captivity at Sea World. He was torn away from his family at the absurdly young age of 2, never to see his family again. Held captive against his will, all Tilikum could do was to swim meaningless around in compact holding tank far from home. Tilikum performed for decades in front of hundreds and thousands of people, However, Tilikum became notorious for his aggressive behaviour and unfortunately was involved in the deaths of 3 trainers. A film known as ‘Blackfish’ was later released in 2013 that changed the perspective around aggressive behaviour by orcas, and in particular, Tilikum. Throughout the entirety of the film, former Sea World trainers criticized the park's practices as “harmful for orcas and dangerous for trainers”. They argued that animals such as Tilikum behaved aggressively because of the stress and trauma of captivity. After being captive for 34 years Tilikum finally found freedom in death.
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Furthermore, The circumstances these animals experience on a day to day basis is not sustainable in any way and cause extremely poor health. Dorsal fin collapse occurs due to the animals having an unnatural diet and not enough room to swim. Sea World claims that these conditions are common, However, in the wild, it rarely ever happens and is a sign of an injured or unhealthy orca. Dorsal fin collapse occurs to 100% of captive whales and only 1% of wild whales.
Additionally, Communities of killer whales are extremely complex. They live in different communities and not usually interacting or socializing with another group. Each community has its own unique choice of calls and food. Just as forcing two strangers to live together in a restricted space would cause conflict and violence, in the same way bringing together killer whales from different groups would. Killer whales won't necessarily always get on with each other, social structures form and interactions can be hostile, violent and result in injury.
The study is one of the justification to keep killer whales in captivity-as we will learn from the animals. However, there are a few issues with that. Initially, research is limited in what they can teach us about wild killer whales as they are in an artificial environment. Captive killer whales will behave differently as well as that they won't respond to wild killer whales, and also suffer from various health problems.
Each and every animal has as much right to be here, like you and me. So why do we as a socitey let them suffer before our eyes? Our future generations will look back on these horrid events and think “what brutal times”. When they are gone. When every last life has been stolen. How will you remember them? Extinction is forever. To release these whales from these brutal prisons sign this petition to end Killer whale captivity.
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