Posted on 11/12/2013 7:02:00 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
No stranger to performances, SeaWorld must put on a very different kind of show today in what could be a make or break day for the aquatic entertainment giant.
SeaWorld Orlando is asking a panel of three judges on a federal appeals court to overturn safety citations and a ban instituted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration restricting the ability of humans to interact with killer whales during performances.
The injunction was instituted after the death of veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010, when Tilikum, the orca she had worked with for years, dragged her into the water and killed her in front of horrified viewers.
OSHA said the company violated the general duty clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, saying it exposed its workers to a known hazard in the workplace. SeaWorld was slapped with a $75,000 fine for three safety violations, including one “willful” citation. After SeaWorld appealed that decision, an administrative law judge last year downgraded the “willful” complaint to “serious,” reducing the fine to $12,000.
Crucially, the judge sided with OSHA’s findings that keeping humans out of the water with killer whales unless there were physical barriers would reduce the risk of serious injury or death.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.sentinelsource.com ...
Well, further down in the article it say this.
“To put it bluntly, most of that is bullshit,” says Karsten Brensing, a marine biologist with the organization Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) . . . “You can use similar arguments to prove that people aren’t intelligent.”
Also, watch this video about how Orcas cooperatively hunt - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3xmqbNsRSk
That’s what debatable means.
I tend to accept the idea that these animals have been idealized.
Most liberal left hippy dippy propaganda, such as the superior mystical nature of cetaceans, is nonsense.
It serves as lies which further serve to inculcate world views that make one side with Government intrusion as in this current incident with OSHA and Seaworld.
I’d have no problem with a law that banned killer whale shows. But this is rule by fiat based upon whim.
“Clearly, Team Sea World has to recruit overt bull-dyke lesbians to interact with the creatures. No foul, then.”
Are humans allowed in the water with bull-dyke lesbians?
But they’re so Cute and they’re Black and White just like Obama. They should put an Orca on the Obamacare Death Panel.
I don’t accept the premise that a federal bureaucracy has any business telling a private entity how to do their job.
I prefer the Constitutional approach. If this kind of business offends the sensibilities of the people of the state of Florida, then Florida can regulate it.
I have a job as a halloween haunt monster. Now, I am unlikely to be killed in this job. However, my job is to scare people. Sometimes, people who are scared lash out. Several times a weekend, the scare-actors might get punched by a guest. This is a known workplace hazard, and we are all warned about it and trained how to minimize it.
But why could not OSHA simply claim that the risk of being hit by a guest outweighs any benefit of putting haunt monsters into that situation? It is hard to argue that the world needs people scaring other people for money. It is hard to say that it is essential that the haunt monster get close enough to a guest to be in a position to get punched.
But I can tell you that a LOT of people are entertained, and receive enjoyment, from that interaction.
Would a SeaWorld show be as enjoyable without the interaction between the trainer and the animal? I don’t know. But someone has probably done a cost-benefit analysis, and I’d think Sea World would not be doing this if they didn’t have evidence that more people will enjoy the show with the interaction (which is why it would be more money for them).
Are people’s enjoyment of a show worth the risk of harm? Well, people die playing pro football, and you could make illegal the actions that take place in a football game that lead to those deaths, but it would make the game less enjoyable. We clearly have a concept that enjoyment is worth risk of life. Same with many other sports, like car racing, which has no real purpose but to entertain, but which kills people.
I can’t imagine how you would run a circus without the trainers ever being in a position where a potentially deadly animal might be able to attack the trainer. Or whether people would really like a high-wire act if there was no chance of the person falling to their death (caveat: I personally don’t like watching other people risk their lives, and would enjoy the act more if I knew there was safety equipment, but that doesn’t appear to be true for most people).
I probably could support OSHA issuing safety guidelines that required trainers to be properly taught and to sign off on the risks. Informed consent is key.
the government/insurance industrial complex rides again.
Why we are becoming a totalitarian Fascist country.
That was not his point, it was sarcasm.
He was basically saying if the trainers were bull dykes, the obama team would leave Sea World alone. At least that is how I took it.
The movie “Blackfish” changed me. I hate Seaworld.
.
I seem to recall an incident where enviromentalists
raised a seal and then as they were releasing it
“into the wild” is was immediately eaten by an Orca.
I don’t think they show that footage much.
Oh I missed that. Oops
They’ve run how many shows for how many years with two fatalities. Convienance stores are more dangerous.
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