– – In the aftermath of a veteran SeaWorld trainer’s death in Orlando, animal rights activists are questioning whether marine mammals, especially large predators, belong in captivity.
The people who run theme parks, after all, are first and foremost interested in making money; conservation and protection are at best secondary interests. An orca’s life in captivity in a tank has been compared to keeping a human being in a bathtub for his entire life. Such captivity causes stress, and stressed-out whales are more likely to injure or kill people. We tend to think of such whales as “bad animals” when in reality they are wild animals, used to running free in an entire ocean but now confined to what is to them a very small space.
Most Americans have romanticized, artificial notions of sea life perpetuated by such shows as Flipper; the reality is quite different. Some animal rights organizations like The Humane Society of the United States and the Animal Legal Defense Fund feel that it’s high time for the marine park industry to get out of the captive orca business…
FOXSYLVANIA 
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