SeaWorld Is Putting Trainers In Danger

SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment claims to have been providing personal, interactive and education experiences with wildlife sea creatures for more than 50 years. The park creates orca shows year-round featuring “specialized” whale trainers. They take the claim to have held the first birth of a killer whale in captivity. What SeaWorld visitors do not know is that Sea World is harming ocean life. The employees of SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment need to take responsibility for their horrible actions and be shut down. Research shows that SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment’s captive lifestyles for orcas whales shorten their life expectancy, and the employees blame their animals for injuring the trainers.

Orca whales are wild animals. When trainers swim in a tank with a whale, they are entering whale territory. Whale trainers are not marine biologists; they are simply performers and are only taught basic skills for working with whales. Most SeaWorld visitors have the same common knowledge as some of the “professional” trainers. The whales’ relationship with the trainers is not built on unconditional love like a parent and child, but rather built on what the trainers give the whales. Sometimes harsh behavior given off from the orca is not because of lack of food. Veterinarian Eric Hoyt says, “In a few cases, we can attribute this behavior to disease or to the presence of frustrating or confusing situations” such as a small tank and nowhere to escape to and bullying from other whales. There have been zero reported deaths or injuries of humans by orca whales in the wild, but according to http://www.Orcahome.de, there have been about 130 reported deaths and injuries of humans by orcas in captivity. SeaWorld will always put the blame on their whales for injuring their trainers, rather than putting the blame on themselves for causing the whales to go insane and ultimately injure the trainers.

We trust professional, special animal doctors to treat and take care of our sick house pets. These special doctors are called veterinarians. We should not expect any less professional skills being used at SeaWorld on the animals. In order to become an animal trainer at SeaWorld, not too much extensive training takes place. Anyone who is willing, even if not qualified, can be hired as a trainer. We would think SeaWorld would bring in marine biologists to train and swim with the wild animals, but they do not. Being taught how to train an animal does not teach a person how to properly care for a creature or teach them how their body works, inside and out.  SeaWorld should bring in animal physiologists once a month to check up on the animals and make sure the animals are experiencing mental abuse. Marine biologists go through many years of schooling to learn about sea creatures. Their skills and knowledge are not brought to SeaWorld.

Work Cited

Hoyt, Erich. “Dangers to Trainers.” PBS. PBS, 1992. Web. 27 Sept. 2015.

PETA. “10 Things You Didn’t Know About SeaWorld – SeaWorld of Hurt.” SeaWorld of Hurt. N.p., 2015. Web. 27 Sept. 2015.