SeaWorld has been under siege ever since the popular documentary Blackfish highlighted the cruelty involved in their operations. Animal rights campaigners have successfully encouraged customers, consumers and even celebrities to boycott SeaWorld. This has damaged the public image and finances of the company more than anyone could have predicted.
Bigger Tanks Won’t Solve the Problem
Instead of seeing the instant decline in support of their Orca programs and performances as a sign to quit this cruel practice, SeaWorld is now proposing to double the size of their Orca tanks in a PR stunt named “Blue World Project.” The announcement for the new enhanced tanks comes just two days after SeaWorld’s stocks dropped by 33 percent, and many see this as a desperate attempt to win back some public confidence in their work.
Blue World Project plans to construct a 10 million gallon Orca tank in SeaWorld San Diego by 2018. It neglects to mention, however, that this enclosure will still be considered tiny for an animal capable of traveling hundreds of miles a day in the wild. PETA summed it up perfectly when they responded, “A bigger prison is still a prison.”
SeaWorld Doesn’t Help Conservation Efforts
The president and CEO of SeaWorld, Jim Atchison, has failed to grasp the ethical problems with the capture and confinement of marine mammals, claiming they are trying to “advance the global understanding of these animals, to educate, and to inspire conservation efforts to protect killer whales in the wild.” What Atchison does not understand is that we do not learn anything about the natural behavior of animals by capturing and confining them.
The Days of Captive Animals Used as Entertainment Are Numbered
It is time for SeaWorld to wake up and realize they are part of a dying industry. With new legislation passed in countries across the world, the days of animal entertainment businesses are numbered. The Blue World Project is a desperate attempt to fool the public into believing SeaWorld has changed and now puts the animal’s interests at the top of its agenda. In reality, they are just trying to profit further from the capture and containment of these beautiful creatures.
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