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Essay Seaworld and Killer Whales

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If you have ever been to Seaworld you would have had to go see the Killer whales in fact its one of the top attractions there. Through the eyes of a child, these gentle giants seem to be happy, healthy, and enjoying a playful game with their trainers. The question is are they really happy, do they get treated the right way, and why have there been deaths and injuries. Many people wonder about these things and after the movie Blackfish came out more and more people began to question how well Seaworld treats their animals. “The truth is that Sea World keeps its animals for entertainment and money and helps no one but themselves.”- Animal Legal Defense Fund Most people believe that the orca whales come from the wild into captivity …show more content…

In November of 1983 Tilikum was taken away from his family at approximately two years of age. Once he was in America he didn't go straight to Seaworld, he actually started at a small marine park in Florida called Sealand. While he was there the trainer used the female orcas to teach Tilikum all the tricks, but if he did not perform it the correct way there would be a punishment. This meant that neither of the orcas would get a reward which was food.the females became mad at tilikum and would rake him, meaning they would scrape their teeth across the length of his body. The conditions at the very small marine park were awful for such large animals, the tank that all three of them were put into was only 100-foot-by-50-foot pool that was just 35 feet deep. Now you would think after being trapped in such a small space would make you go a little crazy, and in Tilikum’s case it did. While he was at Sealand he was the cause of a trainer's death, he had drowned her, this was the first humane killed. Eventually Sealand shutdown, and “on January 3, 1992 SeaWorld applied for an emergency permit authorizing immediate importation of Tilikum for medical reasons.”- PBS, Frontline. Once he was at Seaworld he was put straight to work learning all the routines, but his living conditions didn’t get much better the other whales at Seaworld raked him too. The trainers soon put Tilikum into his own

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