Replies

What a tragic statement.

These are INCREDIBLY smart creatures!
I used to work at Sea World in Orlando at the only full service restaurant/full bar in the park (at the time). It was across the lagoon from shamu stadium. After every show, 300+ plus people would walk across the boardwalk to the restaurant for food and the adults simply wanted a drink after a hot day in the sun. We made great money and I was young at the time, however, with that said is the depressing part...

At night, about 11pm,, we’d wipe the tables, stack the chairs on the deck, close our registers, count the tips, wipe down and close the bar after all the guests had left. The music in the park was turned down to a subsided volume. It was eerily quiet and subdued as we closed. Because Shamu stadium was across the lagoon and sound travels best over water, we’d hear the whale killers sing/talk/communicate. To me, they always sounded like they were crying. It was an eerie and haunting sound which weighed heavy on my ears and heart, both at I the time and even now.

Often, on my way out of the park to go home, I’d stop at the colophyon “petting pool” and just talk to them. They’d swim by me, roll their bodies to get a good one-eyed look and swim past, rolling again to exhale a puff of air with mist. They never wanted to be touched, they just wanted the fish the guests bought to feed them, all the while, the gusts were merely hoping to reach out and get an unwelcomed “feel”. The dolphins were smart enough to know how to get close enough to grab the treats, but remain far enough to avoid the feel. Over time, after many months of quite hours with them, they would sometimes trust me enough to swim close for a passing rub.

Once every couple of years, I drive to I the Florida keys and stop at the Dolphin Research Center (Grassy Key). This is a rescue facility, coincidentally, where “flipper” was filmed. Usually I bring my Great Pyrenees than there and the is welcome at the facility. It is astounding that my dog and the dolphin seem to know each other are there. The dolphins roll on their sides for the one eyed gaze and my dog stares back, transfixed. Gentleness meeting gentleness communicating in ways we don’t fully comprehend. Dolphins can x-ray other beings and their intuition is simply incredible. My dog loves watching them in an odd and silent way and they are absolutely intrigued by her. It’s almost as though they are quietly communicating in some language we don’t know and it is beautiful to watch.

Except for those who need care, these beautiful creatures should all be freed.

The dorsal fin on all whale killers in the wild is erect, upright and firm. Only the ones in captivity slouch to one side. It is cruel and abusive, as these beautiful creatures are mere entertainment and “circus” for the pleebs, at the expense of these creature’s lives. Like the bulls in the arenas who every once in a while gore the matadore, I take a bit of joy when an inhumanely captured whale killer harms a “trainer”. As someone who worked there,I can, with certainty say that it happens much more often that what is reported.

While some may require rescue, that’s NOT what was happening. Rather like the dancing Russian bears, or elephants chained down for circus. While elephants, lions, giraffes and many others need sanctuary from encroachment, poaching and other circumstances, “circus” for entertainment is an evil that should stop. No human would want to be treated in such fashion and no good. An honorable, or kind human would ever subject another human to the “circus” to which we treat other creatures.

I’m certainly no erf-hugger by any means, but we must do much better.

Someone once said; “a society is judged by how it treats the weakest of its members” and while that statement was, in its context, intended to apply to how humans treat humans, it is equally applicable to how humans enslave other creatures for “circus”