Sitting in the front row watching the amazing, beautiful killer whales jump and do tricks when SPLASH! You are suddenly soaked, but it’s okay. You saved your camera from the water just in time. You are having so much fun! Too bad the animals aren’t.
Peers, teachers, audience, I would like to educate you on marine mammal’s cruelties.
Who would like to be kept in their home until they die at an early age from lack of a sustainable environment? How about getting your family and friends taken away so you are all alone in that so-called home? Then you’ll be forced to do tricks for other people’s entertainment and “education”. Sounds fun, right? I can send you to Marineland.
That is what happens to the poor dolphins, orcas and beluga whales. They get separated from their pod or group of two to fifty or even more, depending on the breed. Imagine being kidnapped and alone in a small room for the rest of your life, or even just being born into the small room. No matter kidnapped or bred in captivity, the whales have a high mortality rate.
But wouldn’t you go crazy in that little room? I’m sure I would, and I know the poor whales and dolphins do. Being stuck in that tank that is too small for their regular wild behaviour pays a toll on them physically, mentally and psychologically. They don’t have enough room to swim the miles they would in the ocean, so they end up aimlessly swimming in circles, their sanity slowly deteriorating. The dolphins can’t express their social selves in the lonesome life they are forced to live.
The whales don’t even have the vital depths they are accustomed to. The shallow tanks go completely against the usual 10-20% of time spent at surface level for the marine mammals and up it to about 50%. This causes skin irritations and gravity to affect their dorsal fins. Without the support of the water gravity gives many of them dorsal fin collapse. Only about 1% of wild orcas show this symptom of a sagging dorsal fin.
The captive orcas who receive medical care and much attention and feedings from humans do not out live the happy, free, wild ones. The frozen then thawed fish that are fed to them must not compare to the live, fresh prey in the wild. They also receive vitamins daily at Marineland, but the ones in the wild outlive them without the human help. They are perfectly capable without us tampering with their lives.
Why should we have a right to go capture them? We go and kidnap them from their families and friends as they innocently live their lives. It is unfair how we can take advantage of the dolphin’s playful attitude as they explore the trapping boats. Most of the marine mammals in amusement parks and other public displays are captured violently from the wild. How is it humans can get away with such cruelties?
It is allowed for us to commit these inhumane acts because they claim it is educational and conservational. How is it educational to watch animals to tricks and stunts? How is it conservational to deprive an animal of its necessities? Studies show that most people prefer to see orcas and dolphins in their natural habitat. There is not much that’s educational or entertaining about a sad killer whale in a bland tank where they can’t move two strokes one way or another without a wall stopping them.
If we really wanted to help these creatures, we should clean up their habitat and leave them be. The same goes for all animals. They would all be happier in their rightful places than in spaces too small to live in. To make a real difference in the world, let’s not enclose them and torture them, but help the animals.
So instead of sitting in that front row in danger of getting your camera splashed on by fake sea water, let’s go to their natural habitat; with happy families and healthy orcas and dolphins to take pictures of instead of the depressed, deprived ones. Try to have a heart and not be an animal cruelty supporter.
Thank you.
