Captive Orcas

Before I begin, I would like to let my viewers know that my credibility on the subject of captive orcas is not a professional one. I am merely someone who opposes the idea of captive orcas. I am also someone who has done some research and believes in the freedom and relocation of orcas to sea pens. For my persuasive project, I decided to create a piece of visual art to express my point. I want to show my audience, anyone on social media, the harsh life of an orca in places like Seaworld. My visual art is based on a meme called What People Think I Do/ What I Really Do. As you can see from my visual piece and other examples of this meme on the internet, this meme provides six different points of views from people on one subject. The points of views I used were of that of a friend, mother, an orca trainer, the CEO of Seaworld, and an orca. Each view illustrates what a specific individual thinks the subject does based on the individual’s personality, relation, and view of the subject. With this piece of visual art, I want to get the attention of

It is known that orcas are predators and not prey. No animals hunt them. Only humans prey on these social giants and enslave them for entertainment purposes. Moral philosopher Mary Midgley, who was known for her works on ethics, animal rights, and science wrote in her article “Is a Dolphin a Person?” that “what makes creatures our fellow-beings, entitled to basic consideration, is not intellectual capacity, but emotional fellowship” (169). Midgley makes no mentions of orcas among the animals she talks about in this article but she does mention dolphins, which orcas are, so I will assume that this would apply to orcas too. Orcas are known to be social beings which means they have emotion fellowship and according to Midgley, this would mean that we must take into consideration that orcas are our fellow-beings. Thus, the way we treat them is terribly wrong and