SeaWorld often keeps dolphins, whales, and other animals trapped with incompatible tankmates. The tension leads to fights and even fatal injuries. Staff members drug some animals to try to relieve their endless frustration.
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Confinement to tiny tanks can cause dolphins to become stressed, neurotic, and aggressive. This endangers not only other dolphins but also humans—including children—who are allowed to interact with them. At SeaWorld, children are put at risk every day when their parents pay for them to be able to touch the dolphins.
SeaWorld often keeps dolphins, whales, and other animals trapped with incompatible tankmates. The tension leads to fights and even fatal injuries. Staff members drug some animals to try to relieve their endless frustration.
SeaWorld often keeps dolphins, whales, and other animals trapped with incompatible tankmates. The tension leads to fights and even fatal injuries. Staff members drug some animals to try to relieve their endless frustration.
Dolphins at SeaWorld are confined to cramped tanks and see very little each day other than the same concrete walls. Keeping them in tanks is like keeping humans in bathtubs. They're forced into contact with the public and made to perform unnatural tricks.
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and Humane Society of the US issued a report on the topic as early as 2003, pointing out that feeding throughout the day by members of the public led to both obese and underweight dolphins, because some animals would become more aggressive than others.
SeaWorld has been the subject of controversy before. Tilikum pulled SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau into the water in 2010, killing her after a show at the theme park. In the wake of Brancheau's death, SeaWorld removed trainers from the water and implemented new safety procedures.
Cal. 2012)) was a legal case heard in the US Federal Court in 2012 concerning the constitutional standing of an orca. It was brought by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on behalf of Tilikum, an orca kept in the SeaWorld Orlando park, against the SeaWorld corporation.
“SeaWorld is American Humane Certified which means we have inspected their facilities and they met our rigorous certification criteria for the good welfare and humane treatment of animals.
— Captive bottlenose dolphins had an average life expectancy of almost 24 years, with a high estimate of 26 years and a low estimate of 22 years. Those at SeaWorld had an average life expectancy of almost 45 years.