First, you must realize that I am nowhere near a “bleeding heart,” but I am also not one to overlook something that screams of doing the wrong thing for money. I watched the film Blackfish the other night with the boys and we were shocked. I think I was more shocked that I never even imagined SeaWorld would be doing anything wrong than that killer whales are treated poorly in captivity. Also, like the many “former trainers” parroted throughout, I never imagined just what a dangerous job it is to perform with the massive fish. Sure, when you take a second to think about it – it makes sense that a 8,000 pound wild animal is dangerous. Sure, it makes sense that to make any wild animal literally jump through hoops, you have to bully them at the very least. I enjoyed my trip with the family to SeaWorld and found the show very entertaining. Heck, my Facebook cover photo is from there.
We had a great time and got a great picture!
So what do you do? Do you go online and start ranting about the treatment of killer whales? Do you boycott SeaWorld? I don’t see SeaWorld as an evil empire” set on the torture and destruction of innocent animals. I see SeaWorld as an old school roadside attraction working to update their offerings to the public while relying on archaic animal treatment methods to stay in business. They are suffering a serious PR backlash from the film and if they are smart, they will fix things fast! If they are going to stay in the business of putting on aquatic animal shows, the need to seriously change how they do things.
- Stop capturing wild killer whales – period.
- Change the living habits of their captive animals
- Begin open and honest sharing of safety information to their staffs
Aw heck, who am I kidding? That would cost so much money that it is not going to happen. I think it might be time for an emergency meeting of the bigwigs of SeaWorld with the agenda being “How to get out of the animal business.” For now, I will just let my dollars vote by not going to SeaWorld until things have changed. Back to the film: It was a good documentary and definitely succeeded in waking me up. Watch it with an expectation of feeling “something.” One of my favorite quotes is “sunshine is the best disinfectant” and that is this film’s best greatest accomplishment.
RATING 8 out of 10 
Recent Comments