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| Killer whales belong in the open ocean. |
Ever since CNN broadcast the documentary Blackfish, Sea World's public relations department
has inundated social media and television
advertising with a campaign defending itself. The onslaught comes in waves, peaking just before the
network repeats the program.
The campaign is most obvious on Twitter where the company
posts comments often several times a day, defending its practice in the care and
display of killer whales or highlighting some incident where Sea World did some
good in the world like participating in the rescue of a stranded or injured sea
creature.
Almost every one of their posts, at least the ones involving
whales, attracts a wave of comments from the folks who want to set those whales
free or at least stop Sea World from holding them. It's like the lines from the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth" "…
singing songs and carrying signs,
mostly say hooray for our side …"
Sea World also responds to every criticism the company
receives pointing to the positives but in the process often shading the truth and
even lying outright; The back and forth into sometimes minute detail tends to
bury the underlying problem in a quagmire of claims and counter claims. The
public relations department writes about what the whales are fed, how they respond
to sunlight and to noise; Sea World says it doesn't separate mothers from
offspring yet proof exists that they do. For every criticism there is a
response and for every response there is a new criticism.
My favorite by far is this
one defending the enclosures:
Please read this information on how our killer whale habitats are some
of the largest in the world: http://bit.ly/1GiI0I3 ."
Consider the word "habitat" for a moment. Natural killer whale habitat covers all
oceans and how Sea World can say any of their "habitats" compares
with that is simply ludicrous. Of course, they are referring to habitats for
captives, but that's what is wrong, and that's where the basis for Sea World
criticism lies.
The company can attack its critics in excruciating detail and the critics can respond in kind but nothing anybody says can change the fact that Sea World confines huge whales in what amounts to swimming pools. No matter what they feed, no matter how good the care is, no matter how healthy they are, the whales, who normally range over thousands of miles and swim in depths measured in fathoms instead of feet, live their lives in what comparatively amounts to a human's back-yard pool.
The company can attack its critics in excruciating detail and the critics can respond in kind but nothing anybody says can change the fact that Sea World confines huge whales in what amounts to swimming pools. No matter what they feed, no matter how good the care is, no matter how healthy they are, the whales, who normally range over thousands of miles and swim in depths measured in fathoms instead of feet, live their lives in what comparatively amounts to a human's back-yard pool.
That
is the simple truth of what is wrong with Sea World and nothing the company
does or says is ever going to justify that tragic practice.
Bravo.
ReplyDeleteI recall returning to the East Coast after a decade of residency in Alaska and in a fit of nostalgia revisited a zoo, which I had loved as a kid. That was one of the saddest days ever, especially since after seeing firsthand animals such as wolves, bears and eagles in the wilderness had irrevocably and indelibly changed my perception of them as never, ever belonging in a cage – regardless of how big a one it is as you point out. The preservation of their natural habitat is the crucial component in saving an animal, but one that takes comparatively far too much effort to change on the part of our species.