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The Pros And Cons Of Orca Captivity

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When someone thinks about SeaWorld, they think of a tranquil place where humans and marine animals live in harmony and perform fun shows for families to enjoy. However, this is far from the truth. In reality, SeaWorld is hiding a dark secret. Within all those marine shows, there are voluminous amounts of lies. “It’s safe for trainers to be in the water with Orcas,” and “Captive Orcas’ life spans are equivalent to those in the wild,” are one of many lies about Orca captivity told by SeaWorld. Orca captivity needs to be stopped for human and trainer safety, Orca safety, and because of the Orcas’ happiness and their vile living conditions. To begin with, trainers and humans are putting themselves in the face of danger when they are with these …show more content…

Many argue keeping Orcas in these vile conditions is considered barbaric. All whales in captivity have a bad life (Cowperthwaite, 2013). Jeffrey Ventre states that SeaWorld is a multi-billion dollar company that makes money through the exploitation of Orcas (Cowperthwaite, 2013). The reason their living conditions are considered barbaric is because of two main reasons. One reason is that their tanks are way too small for them. According to Tierney (2010) “In captivity they have access to less than one ten-thousandth of 1 percent of the space available to them in their natural environment” (para. 7). The Orcas won’t get enough exercise in a small tank like the ones at SeaWorld which will cause them to have health problems. Daly (2019) states “You put [orcas] in a box that is 150 feet long by 90 feet wide by 30 feet deep and you’re basically turning them into a couch potato” (para. 7). Next, the Orcas do not get along with each other. Tilikum has been described to have bite and teeth marks on his skin from the other Orcas (Cowperthwaite, 2013). Orcas live in tight-knit family bonds (Tierney, 2010, para. 8). All the bonds between the Orcas at SeaWorld are artificial (Cowperthwaite, 2013). Most captive Orcas are taken young from their pods, a group of Orcas. The loss of social ties may cause that Orca to be sad or lonely (Tierney, 2010, para. 8). Most of these

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