"SeaWorld vs. The Whale That Killed Its Trainer"

Kenneth Brower uses an effective progression to his argument against SeaWorld. He takes the “ease into the cold water” approach to avoid any traumatic shock by utilizing a long introduction without the use of personal opinion and strong adjectives to describe SeaWorld. This casual tone eases the audience into the article. Brower even defends SeaWorld veterinarian, Dr. Lanny Cornell, by addressing the work SeaWorld and Cornell did to better the quality of life for killer whale, Keiko. After establishing the audiences trust by appearing neutral and informative, Brower finally dives into the bold opinions and attacking adjectives against SeaWorld.

Another strong rhetorical point in the article is the inclusion of Dawn Brancheau’s autopsy report. The autopsy report is a long list of the damage Tilikum did to Dawn’s body. It’s not the content of the list that’s important, but the quantity of it and its lack of conjunctions that effectively makes the list seem unfinished. Brower recognized the effect the asyndeton would have in convincing readers Dawn’s death was not an accident. However, it also appears to put the blame on the whales instead of SeaWorld. Brower manages to recover from this in his concluding paragraph. He defends the killer whale by writing, “What is remarkable about Orcinus ocra in marine parks is not these rare episodes. What is remarkable is their monumental forbearance.” It’s such a subtle, but strong finish. It gets across that the fault is not in the whale, but their situation.

In my view, it might be the situation of these whales, instead of genuine concern for them, that has given SeaWorld’s killer whales the attention they’ve received. I concluded this might be the case after wondering why killer whales are the big subject of animal ethics lately instead of other species that are also in captivity and trained to do tasks far from their natural behavior. It appears that captivated killer whales gained attention after Tilikum killed human life, and I can’t help but wonder if this is the only reason the great concern for these whales was initiated. If this is the case, the hypocrisy is unsettling. It’s not until a species harms human life that we suddenly care about their conditions.