Sea World Case Study

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Recommended: Conditions of orcas in the sea world

Sea World; family fun or nightmare to whales? Are you someone who would feel comfortable paying for an orca show knowing full well that that money is helping to fund their abuse? The orcas at SeaWorld go through countless traumatizing experiences, the worst case being Tilikum the 30 year old “killer”. He was captured at the age of two and brought to a cement holding tank to await being transferred to a marine park. The only thing he could do was swim around in circles and float to the top. Then he was sent to Sealand where food was withheld as a training method, and for 14 hours, from the time the park was closed, to when it was opened, he was in a tiny metal module with two dominant female orcas. He was forced to perform every hour on the hour with eight shows a day. This stress ended up giving …show more content…

That trainer turned into one of three to fall to Tilikum’s stress, and frustration. Sealand closed its doors shortly after and put Tilikum and the other two whales up for sale. SeaWorld heard about Tilikum and jumped at the opportunity and bought the 12,000 pound bull for their breeding program. They thought very little of his aggression and killing reputation, putting their own employees at risk. About 54% of the orcas at SeaWorld have Tilikum’s genes. The rest of the whales and him at SeaWorld are confined to tanks that are about .0001% of the quantity of water they would travel in a single day. Over 21 years Tilikum has shown various different acts of aggression towards staff and the tank. His teeth are almost completely worn down from constant chewing on the metal gates. He ended up killing two trainers at SeaWorld including the most experienced trainer there, Dawn. He scalped her along with breaking multiple bones in her body before downing her. SeaWorld attempted to blame Dawn for the

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