As many people know, a killer whale trainer died at Sea World on Tuesday. She had worked with the killer whales for over ten years, and in about one minute, she was killed by one of them. This same orca is responsible for the death of one other and is looked at suspiciously in the death of another.
Several people have talked to me about it, especially since most people who've known me awhile know how much of an interest I have in these animals. Ever since I was about 8, I've been so fascinated about them. When I read about the incident on Tuesday, a chill went right up my spine.
I didn't know Dawn personally, but I knew of her. I was insanely jealous of her, too. She had the job I always wanted. She got to swim with them and perform with them every day, and then one of them ended her life. The longer I worked at Sea World, the more I hated the idea of keeping these animals in particular in captivity. I used to show up for work an hour or so early to just sit in the stadium and watch them swim. I started realizing that I enjoyed that more than ANY show with them in it. They were playful with each other and oblivious to the trainers watching them. It was the closest I could come to seeing them in the wild.
So when the show, "Believe," premiered, I soon realized why I hated it so much. It wasn't just the stupid expensive screens that moved or the fact that the actual orcas were barely in the show. It was the fact that the show misrepresented these animals in nearly every way. While the previous show at least mentioned, if even for only 30 seconds, that these animals kill other mammals, this one focused on how they are "friends" with humans. In fact, it opens with a kid in a kayak paddling out to see his "friend." I was horrified. Sea World was changing the whole idea of how humans are supposed to interact with nature, and that's somewhat dangerous. I wonder how many kids have an impression of these animals as sweet friendly dolphins who just want to play. After all, isn't that all Tilly wanted to do? Isn't that the same impression the trainers give the orcas, yet the orcas can't play with them the way they'd normally play with their friends.
If people want to see killer whales, the wild is the place to go. While I'll admit that I do like seeing the whales at Sea World, I hate seeing the shows. It's a perversion that's proving to be too dangerous, and I don't understand why Sea World can't transform itself into more of a zoo than an entertainment industry. Are the Busch Gardens employees performing stunts with the tigers? Nope. They have them do a few simple behaviors without a human being any closer than fifteen feet away. Therefore, the public learns that tigers are beautiful and interesting, but humans need to keep their distance. Isn't that the message we should always deliver about animals?
I talked to a friend today about the past tricks (and they are tricks, NOT "behaviors) that these killer whales have done in the past courtesy of Sea World. One occurred in the late 80's and involved a sea lion riding on the stomach of a killer whale as it swam around the pool while Simon's "Call Me Al" played in the background. To this day, it's still shocking to think of an "educational" establishment staging something like that. A few years later, the killer whales would slide out on a small wet platform, and children were quickly placed on their backs. This "behavior" was stopped when the killer whales thought it was funny to try and back up into the water with the kids still on them while the trainers posed hands raised for pictures. Hmmmmm. Something isn't right there either.
When it comes down to it, Sea World is a circus, but they spend a lot more money on animal care and training, and there aren't a lot of land animals involved. Hence, the animal-human issues are brought down. However, the gag orders they DO get through on other trainers who have been hurt would raise some eyebrows. Obviously, most of that information is hidden from the public because the public either misinterprets it or doesn't see it.
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