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Seaworld Essay

Decent Essays

Death of a Trainer:
Increasing Aggression of Orcas Due to Ghastly Conditions in SeaWorld SeaWorld is one of the world’s most popular amusement parks, offering huge roller coasters and animal shows for people of all ages. Their largest attractions are their orca shows, showing several of their killer whales performing tricks with trainers. While, to many viewers, these performances show how docile these wild creatures are with their human counterparts, the destructive practices of SeaWorld have radically lowered the quality of life of killer whales, forcing many of these animals to become aggressive prisoners.
On February 24, 2010, Dawn Brancheau, a veteran orca trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, was killed during the “Dine with Shamu” show by a whale named Tilikum. Horrified tourists watched helplessly as Brancheau was dragged into the tank and thrashed about in the water by Tilikum. William M. Welch of USA Today wrote in one article that “Brancheau was rubbing the 12,000-pound orca after a show when it grabbed her and pulled her in”(1). This incident, while shocking to many, was not the first time Tilikum had caused the death of a whale trainer. In 1991, before Tilikum arrived at SeaWorld, he occupied a tank at a …show more content…

Leinwand writes that “SeaWorld argues in a legal brief that human contact with the killer whales is educational and integral to the care of the killer whales”(1). In another post by Alexandra Sifferlin, she declares that “SeaWorld argues that the killer whales are treated with care . . . that keeping the animals in captivity is very important for conservation research”(1). If keeping 12,000 pound whales trapped in puny containers and blatantly ignoring the risk they take by neglecting these animals is conservation research, it’s no wonder so many animals are going

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