Opinion: Why Seaworld Should Be Boycotted

As spring break approaches across the nation, many people will typically be traveling to escape the cold weather to warmer weather. However, if traveling somewhere warm, the one place you should never visit in these cities is SeaWorld. This theme park sets itself apart from others as they have marine life shows in addition to their plethora of rides. However, not many people know how inhumanely the staff at Seaworld Orlando handles their animals. 

SeaWorld is not new to criticism as a former location in Ohio closed in 2000, most likely due to inhumane conditions amongst the animals. However, SeaWorld press denies any wrongdoing. 

The list of SeaWorld’s cruel acts includes but is certainly not limited to drilling the inside of orcas’ worn and broken teeth without painkillers and collecting sperm from male orcas and artificially inseminating female animals while being drugged to prevent resistance. SeaWorld still offers touch tanks and animal encounters which overwhelms animals due to the mass amount of people that visit these parks each day, especially ones that aren’t traditionally used to interacting with humans on a daily basis. The abuses have been confirmed even further. In 2018, when a veterinarian for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) observed dolphins at all three SeaWorld parks in the United States, they found animals with open wounds and extensive scarring on both their faces and bodies. 

The most famous incident at SeaWorld began in 1965 when a 3-year old Orca named Shamu was kidnapped from her mother in the ocean by SeaWorld. Men shot her mother with a harpoon and Shamu watched her mother die. Shamu refused to leave her dead mother’s side until she was forcibly kidnapped. She was deprived of food while being forced to learn show tricks. Shamu was forced to do shows at SeaWorld for years from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. 

Shamu died six years later in 1971 while in captivity after a park employee, Annette Eckis was instructed to ride on her back for a publicity stunt. After Eckis fell off Shamu’s back, the orca clamped down her teeth on Eckis’ leg out of fear and refused to let go. A trainer shoved a pole into Shamu’s mouth and pried her jaws open. Eckis sued even though it was the mistreatment of Shamu that lead to this incident. Shamu later died of uterine infection and blood poisoning at just 9-years old. If left to be in the wild, she could’ve lived to be 100-years old. 

Another incident at SeaWorld was when they exploited a pregnant beluga whale for publicity. Employees posted her sonogram on social media for views and likes in a shameful attempt to lure new visitors to the San Antonio park. If her baby survived, they would’ve only known a world of a concrete prison unless SeaWorld released these suffering beluga whales into seaside sanctuaries. 

In 1983, 12 dolphins were captured from their home waters in Chile. They were later put on display at SeaWorld. Half of them died within six months. If animals are constantly being captured from their home waters to be put on display at SeaWorld only to die, it seriously raises questions about how poorly these animals are truly being treated at their parks.

A dolphin named Ringer was impregnated by her own father at SeaWorld. There’s a good chance that her last child was inbred as well. She’s had several babies before this one and all of them have died. 

According to an article from The Travel, SeaWorld forces its employees to cover up their cruelty from the public. More than 40 orcas have died at SeaWorld and this number keeps on climbing. One orca named Kasatka was imprisoned in a SeaWorld tank for nearly 40 years as men abducted her from the ocean at only a year old. She died in August of 2017 after having suffered from a bacterial lung infection since at least 2008.  Lesions covered her weak body before her death and her mate, Kotar, was killed after a pool gate closed on his head, fracturing his skull. 

In 2011, SeaWorld took ten baby penguins away from their parents in Antarctica. They shipped them to SeaWorld in California for “research purposes.” However, there is no evidence of these supposed research purposes. In 2015, SeaWorld shipped 20 penguins via FedEx on a 13-hour car ride from California to Michigan. They were transported inside small plastic crates with air holes and were forced to stand on blocks of ice. 

SeaWorld has continued to buy orcas that are taken away from their families. Its primary orca hunter even hired divers to cut open the stomachs of five orcas, fill them with rocks, and put anchors in their tails in order to sink them to the bottom of the ocean. Orcas are not the only animals suffering at SeaWorld. A blind walrus named Obie spent his life trapped in a cramped tank at SeaWorld in San Diego and suffered from deep distress as he would press his mouth against the tank’s glass and repeatedly throw up and swallow his food again, a common behavior among captive animals that can cause serious health problems. More than 60 bottlenose dolphins, including 16 stillborn babies, have died in SeaWorld parks in just 10 years with a total of more than 300 dolphins dying on SeaWorld’s watch. 

Jessica Timberlake, an American actress and the wife of Justin Timberlake, submitted a question on behalf of PETA at SeaWorld’s annual meeting on June 11, 2014, questioning the practices of SeaWorld. Fortunately, there are actions you can take to ensure that SeaWorld ends its atrocities put on animals. By filling out PETA’s action alert, you can contact SeaWorld calling them out on their cruel treatment of some of the most intelligent animals on the planet, and urge the amusement park to release their animals. The more people that fill this out, the faster SeaWorld will have to reckon with its actions.

• American University
• animal rights
• environmental activism
• HCAU
• seaworld