Our goal is to successfully rehabilitate and return every animal to the wild. The small percentage of animals with conditions deeming them non-releasable are given lifelong care with us or at another accredited facility.
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With over 40,000 Rescues, SeaWorld Orlando continues our company's commitment to rescuing and caring for marine animals. SeaWorld's legacy of animal rescue spans more than 50 years.
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's legacy of animal rescue spans more than 50 years. In that time, SeaWorld's Rescue Teams have come to the aid of more than 40,000 sick, injured and orphaned animals in need, giving them a second chance at life.
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 Orlando hosts over 30 bottlenose dolphins and over 200 penguins. SeaWorld Orlando exhibits cover a wide diversity of marine life, including animal encounters with penguins, walruses, sharks, dolphins, beluga whales, and many more. Get the SeaWorld Orlando Annual Pass for unlimited access to the park.
However, facilities in the United States such as SeaWorld have not collected wild orcas in over 35 years. 25 of the 33 orcas on display in the US, Argentina, Spain, and France were born in captivity. Six of the seven displayed in Japan are captive-born.
In 1971, at just 9 years old, Shamu died at SeaWorld from a uterine infection and blood poisoning. In the ocean, she could have lived for up to 80 years. Even in death, SeaWorld continued exploiting Shamu—the company trademarked her name, using it to sell even more tickets to abusive orca shows.
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.
“Most of our orcas were born at SeaWorld , and those that were born in the wild have been in our parks for the majority of their lives,” he wrote. “If we release them into the ocean, they will likely die. In fact, no orca or dolphin born under human care has ever survived release into the wild.
The last orca has been born in captivity at a SeaWorld park, just over a year after the theme park decided to stop breeding orcas following animal rights protests and declining ticket sales.
SeaWorld apparently did not see it that way, and the killer whale shows have continued as before, only now the trainers do not perform any water work with the orcas. This of course saves trainers from being attacked but does nothing to relieve orcas from the frustrations and anxieties of incarceration.
Scrutiny of SeaWorld reached a crescendo following the release of the 2013 documentary “Blackfish.” The documentary focused on the life of Tilikum, a 12,000-pound orca that killed trainer Dawn Brancheau when he dragged her into a pool at SeaWorld Orlando in 2010.
OSHA has issued one willful citation to SeaWorld for exposing its employees to struck-by and drowning hazards when interacting with killer whales. The agency defines a willful violation as one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.
Three important steps - reinforcement, communication, and target recognition - are the basic building blocks of how animals are trained at SeaWorld. Once an animal learns this foundation, the animal applies it to learning new and more complex behaviors.
In the wild, dolphins and whales obtain freshwater (a requirement for all mammals) from eating live food such as fish and squid (they do not drink). In captivity, they are fed dead fish that have lost a significant amount of water in the process of being frozen and thawed (Sikorski et al.