“People don’t want to watch abused animals being forced to perform pointless circus tricks,” says animal rights group
By Nadia Prupis /Common Dreams
Since the 2013 release of Blackfish, a bombshell documentary exposing animal cruelty at SeaWorld, the aquatic theme park has lost increasing levels of both profits and visitors, reporting an 84 percent plunge in net income in just three months.
SeaWorld announced its quarterly earnings on Thursday, acknowledging the steep drop in profits as a result of “brand challenges.”
Blackfish chronicled sustained abuse of orcas at SeaWorld and the consequences of keeping the animals in captivity. It focused on the case of one whale in particular, Tilikum, and how his mistreatment and confinement contributed to the deaths of three people, including his trainer. The film turned SeaWorld into an emblem representing the abuse of animals held in captivity for profit and entertainment, elevating longstanding calls by animal rights groups to boycott such theme parks.
But SeaWorld also generated its own negative publicity last month after an investigation by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) exposed the company’s alleged undercover efforts to sabotage local animal rights campaigns.
That report, released last month, suggested that a 28-year-old SeaWorld employee named Paul T. McComb infiltrated a PETA protest group to “fish” for information about protests and campaigns targeting the theme park. McComb allegedly used a P.O. Box registered to Ric Marcelino, the director of security for SeaWorld San Diego.
Whatever the reasons, the drop in attendance “really isn’t that complicated,” PETA said in response to SeaWorld’s earnings report. “People don’t want to watch abused animals being forced to perform pointless circus tricks. SeaWorld can either retire the animals to coastal sanctuaries, where they can start the rehabilitation process, or continue refusing to evolve and put itself out of business.”
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I’m so glad the tide has turned and the public now knows how appalling captivity is for marine mammals, in particular huge, far ranging, intelligent, emotionally compllex apex predators whose intelligence rivals our own. At this point, SeaWorld controls its destiny; evolve and change their business plan or go under.
I really hope the public continue to see that sea world are a disgusting establishment, and to hopefully one day get them shut completely down.
While I am not pro SeaWorld, the question is: If the park ends up going under what is going to happen to the animals that are there? We can argue all we want the they should have never been in captivity in the first place, but being that they WERE born and raised that way and are used to everything being provided for them they would not likely survive just being put out into the wild. Do we want SW to just shutter down or do we want them to change their business model?
You raise a good question about these orcas surviving if they’re set free. Most experts and marine biologists are proponents of retiring the orcas in sea sanctuaries that are monitored closely by veterinarians, trainers, etc until such time as they’ve learned to hunt and fend for themselves. They may never be able to be freed entirely, but at least they can live out their lives in a habitat that more closely resembles where they should be. Not in small concrete tanks being exploited for greedy profits and “entertainment”, forced to perform tricks, drugged, raked by others in their tanks, put to rest at night in tiny pools, languishing all day bored until they become psychotic, etc. SW should follow Ringlings example. Too much science has been proven about their intelligence and suffering in captivity.