For many people, SeaWorld is a place filled with adventure, fun, imagination, and everlasting memories with those you love, but for the animals residing there, SeaWorld is nothing but a concrete prison in which they are trapped inside forever.
Photo courtesy of SeaWorld of Hurt
SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment is an amusement park organization that has been in existence for about 60 years. Throughout that time, SeaWorld has accumulated a plethora of whales, dolphins, penguins, and other types of marine animals for interactive exhibits and shows within their parks. Currently, SeaWorld has 22 orcas placed throughout their three parks across the United States.
While the concept of animals in captivity is nothing new, it does not make this phenomenon any less cruel or any less evil. Restrained to the confines of a concrete or glass wall, these animals have nothing to stimulate themselves. They are bored constantly and due to this lack of stimulation, they have resulted to physically injuring and harming themselves.
Some killer whales have been known to bang their heads on the performance platform, grind away at their own teeth, and or ram their heads into the walls of their cages (resulting in head injuries). Additionally, orcas often fight each other and retain physical injuries as the increased tension and anxiety from being confined can lead to altercations. Dolphins, on the other hand, often swim to the bottom of their tanks and scrape the area around their nose and mouth. This behavior is not normal and would never have beennot seen out in the wild.
Photo courtesy of The Dodo
Not only do they support the confinement of their marine animals into tiny spaces, they also have been partaking in the artificial insemination of their orcas. Artificial insemination is a process in which male sperm is collected and inserted into the cervix of a female human or animal, for the purpose of impregnating the female by using means other than sex. For SeaWorld, this is their way of insuring more whales for their parks in the future without illegally taking them from the wild. In terms of how they do this with their whales, they train a male orca to voluntarily ejaculate.
The entire process of artificial insemination and in general orca breeding is unethical for a multitude of reasons. First, the company artificially inseminates their whales to continuously keep them breeding. This way of breeding is not natural and a pregnancy is rarely achieved. Additionally, their breeding program often ends in a large amount of stillbirths. As of April of this year, there have been at least 30 miscarried or stillborn calves in captivity. Lastly, the orcas currently residing in SeaWorld are inbred. A whale named Taku at SeaWorld Orlando is both the father and half brother to a whale named Nalani.
Photo courtesy of The Dodo
The orcas stationed at the parks of SeaWorld have a life span that is significantly shorter than what it would be in the wild. The average age of passing is around 14 years old for the whales at SeaWorld. Out in the wild, females have a maximum expected lifespan of about 80 to 100 hundred years while and males have a maximum expected lifespan of about 60 to 70 years. Ever since the beginning of SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, at least 166 orcas have died in captivity and that does not include the 30 stillborn or miscarried calves I mentioned prior.
All animals are not meant to reside in tiny cages or tanks for the entirety of their lives. These animals deserve a longer, healthier, and freer life than the ones they are experiencing now. In order to help these animals, try boycottting SeaWorld and its parks. You may think that one small move will not make an impact, but every dollar saved is a dollar not given to the cruel and awful treatment and confinement of wild animals.
Photo courtesy of Unilad