Analysis Of The Documentary Blackfish By Gabriela Cowperthwaite

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How would you like to be abducted from your family and locked in a bathtub to live out the rest of your days and be used as a source of entertainment? That is exactly what happens when an orca is captured, which is disgusting and pure evil. The Documentary Blackfish by Gabriela Cowperthwaite helps depict the horrors that orcas face while in captivity and reveals the ugly and hidden side of SeaWorld. Blackfish does a great job at showing what SeaWorld has been hiding and really makes you hate them. The main focus of Blackfish is on an orca named Tilikum who was captured off the eastern region of Iceland when he was two years old. Tilikum was first sent to Sealand where he was constantly getting attacked by the other orcas, which made him very Tilikum was left in a cement holding tank for a year in Iceland before he was transferred to Sealand. While held captive all he did was swim in circles and float on the surface, which was nowhere near enough exercise for an animal that typically swam 100 miles per day. Tilikum was eventually transferred to Sealand in British Columbia where he was tortured by two female orcas, Haida and Nootka. Tilikum became very stressed and unhappy being forced to preform and get attacked by the other whales. When a Sealand trainer fell in the water Tilikum was said to have dragged her to the bottom of the enclosure and then tossed her around with the other whales ultimately killing her. Soon after her death Sealand closed down for good and decided to sell Tilikum, when SeaWorld heard they quickly purchased him. Tilikum is the largest whale in captivity and SeaWorld used him for mating purposes to build up their orca population. Captivity took a huge toll on Tilikum and made him very stressed at SeaWorld. One night after closing a man decided to sneak into his tank and it is believed that Tilikum killed him because he was found naked on top of him. SeaWorld lied and said that the man drowned on his on and that Tilikum was just playing with his body afterwards even though there were visible bite marks and the mans scrotum was bitten off. In 2010 trainer Dawn Brancheau fell into Orcas are meant to be in the wild and swim close to 100 miles a day. Instead SeaWorld decided to capture them and use them solely for entertainment purposes. Orcas in captivity behave nothing like those in the wild and it is due to the fact that the living conditions in captivity are not suitable to keep such an active animal healthy. Tilikum is a prime example of what happens to an orca when they’re kept in a tank against their will. Tilikum ended up killing 3 people, not because he was actively seeking to kill them but because the unnecessary stress on him caused him to get increasingly more aggravated and decided to take it out on the cause of his stress. If orcas were not held captive none of these tragedies would have occurred. SeaWorld is a horrible place and needs to be shutdown for good to stop torturing these immensely intelligent

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