SeaWorld vs. the Whale That Killed Its Trainer

Like Rachael, I have seen the documentary “Blackfish”, and before the viewing I had never once given thought to how these whales have been kept in captivity. After viewing the documentary I feel just as strongly about the tragedy of capturing whales and bringing them to SeaWorld as Kenneth Brower does in his 2013 National Geographic article “SeaWorld vs. the Whale That Killed Its Trainer”. In my speech class last semester I also performed a debate as to whether SeaWorld should be closed or not. As I was researching, I found that after the release of Blackfish and many articles like this one, SeaWorld saw a tremendous drop in sales and tourism around the parks so of course they had to make disclaimers, so they could make more money. SeaWorld has been lying for years and has become very good at it. Something that we are focusing on now in class is animal rights and so do these whales have the right to stay in the wild? Yes, to me capturing a baby whale from its mom out of the ocean is the same as kidnapping a human baby from its cradle in a house. Most humans don’t know that scientists have found whales have an extra part of their brain that make their emotions almost ten times stronger than a human, another fact I found in my research last semester. So being separated from their baby is so traumatic for them that they could go suicidal; something that is almost unheard of in the wild. I think Brower makes it perfectly clear when he is talking about all the merchandise sold based off the fame of Keiko that he is disgusted by the way tourism, money and greed by humans is ruining another animals life. So many people have blamed the whales for Dawn Brancheau’s death but my favorite part is the same as Molly’s when Brower says, “These are not bad whales.” It’s not their fault.