After watching the documentary
Blackfish directed by Gabriela Cowperthewaite, I had several questions that lingered in my mind. Does Seaworld still house these Orca's at their entertainment sites? Why don't they face the truth of how dangerous these whales are after keeping them captive? Why don't they tell the trainers the risks they are facing? Before getting into the major details let's backtrack a little bit and recap what this documentary told.. The film begins telling the audience how intelligent Killer Whales are and the emotions and knowledge they are able to hold inside of their brains. The whales should not be separated from their families because the offsprings live by their mothers side for most of their life. Tilikum is one of the whales that this film is based around. Being the only male killer whale Seaworld owns, they take his sperm and impregnate the other female whales. Knowing how dangerous and depressed Tilikum was after being held in a pool for most of his life, it only makes the audience wonder what affects that could pass on to his children. Tilikum was so dangerous that several supervisors knew to be cautious around him but did not inform he trainers. This fact makes me furious. Why would they let their employees be in such danger knowing what the outcome could be?
Some things I enjoyed about this film was how real everything seemed to be. Having former SeaWorld trainers share their experiences and also seeing real footage of attacks from these whales that are held in captivity made it feel like you were there watching the dangers of these animals. The footage made you feel suspense and made you scared for the trainers that the whales were attacking. It is a perfect example of why we should just let nature take it's own course and not disturb what these animals should naturally be doing.
The person that I would most like to meet up with and talk to would be Ken Peters. He was not interviewed in the film but was one of the trainers attacked by one of the killer whales and survived. He was only mentioned and they showed film of the whale dragging him to the bottom of the pool several times, then finally letting go of him. Nothing was ever said directly from him. It would be interesting to hear what he has to say and what his beliefs are about keeping these whales out of their natural habitats and used for promotional purposes for an entertainment park.
This is a picture of Ken Peters with a killer whale before his attack in 2006.
That would have been an interesting film to watch. I always hate hearing about the abuse animals receive from places like seaward and zoos, but I like to be informed. Meeting with Ken would be pretty cool, his job is definitely an interesting one. Training whales has got to be a great experience, although dangerous. Hearing what they do to Tilikum sounds terrible and I would think it caused harm to the offspring from him.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your reflection I fully agree that animals like killer whales should not be kept in display exhibits like SeaWorld. It doesn't make sense to put such a dangerous animal in a confined environment. I can't imagine how scary it must be being one the of the employee's that has to care for a killer whale. Overall, great reflection!
ReplyDeleteI hate hearing about the animal abuse that goes on in these places but I think this would be a very interesting film to watch it's hard to go watch these animals to places like SeaWorld after knowing what is going on and sometimes these animals react the way they do because of the abuse they are going through so honestly I don't think people should be over reacting when they get attacked by these animals because humans are the ones taking them out of their natural habitat.
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