BLACKFISH

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JPatton

Active Member
Original Poster
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September 19, 2013

Mr. Jim Atchison
Chief Executive Officer
SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc.
9205 South Park Center Loop
Suite 400
Orlando, Florida 32819-8651

Dear Mr. Atchison:

As a child, I was lucky to have parents who took me on trips to SeaWorld parks in Florida and California. I enjoyed your parks and have pleasant memories of those summer vacations with my parents and siblings.

Since the tragic death of your animal trainer, Dawn Brancheau in 2010, I have taken a closer look at your company and its history.

I have read the book, “Death At SeaWorld: Shamu and The Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity” by David Kirby. I have seen the film, “Blackfish: Never Capture What You Can’t Control,” directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite.

I recognize the rescue/aid work that SeaWorld has done with manatees and sea turtles; however the management of the orcas in your care seems to have been self-serving to the point of causing harm and exploitation.

For example:

August 8, 1970. Whidbey Island, Washington. An expedition working on behalf of SeaWorld and other aquariums captured 80 orcas in a net. (Most were released after suffering the trauma of capture.) Seven were chosen to be shipped to parks. Five whales, including four baby whales, drowned during the violent captures. Their bodies were weighed down by chains and anchors so that they would sink to the bottom of the ocean away from public view.

‘If the public didn’t see it, it didn’t happen,’seems to have been the attitude of the day.

March, 1976. Near Olympia, Washington. The same expedition, this time working exclusively for SeaWorld, used acetylene torches to light explosives and tossed them into the ocean to frighten a pod of orcas into their net at Budd Inlet.

One can imagine that on the same day that your contractors were literally throwing bombs at wild orcas in Washington, your company was touting education and conservation and “creating incredible awareness for orcas” in front of moms and dads and boys and girls at SeaWorld.

The hypocrisy is staggering.

Your captures in Washington are the main reason that the Southern Resident orcas are endangered today.

February 20, 1991. The orca known as Tilikum (along with two other captive orcas) killed trainer Keltie Byrne at SeaLand of the Pacific in Canada. Your company brought Tilikum to Orlando, Florida where he went on to kill two more people---and where SeaWorld actively used him in its breeding program.

In the “Blackfish” film, former SeaWorld trainer Samantha Berg commented that no reputable breeding program would take an animal that has killed humans and breed it over and over like SeaWorld has done with Tilikum.

In addition to the human injuries and deaths at SeaWorld, your parks are not safe places for killer whales.

SeaWorld occasionally places unrelated and incompatible animals in the same enclosure, creating an unnatural social structure that gives rise to incidents of aggression and attacks.

Whereas displays of dominance between orcas in the wild are unlikely to escalate to dangerous levels, the subordinate orca at SeaWorld has no way of escape from its attacker.

An example of this occurred on August 21, 1989 when Kandu V attacked Corky II at SeaWorld in San Diego causing a 10-foot high geyser of blood to spout from Kandu’s blowhole. Kandu bled to death in view of park guests.

(Two years earlier, in 1987, witnesses reported that Kandu violently collided into Corky, leaving a three-foot-gash along Corky’s stomach. The two orcas were again placed together at SeaWorld despite this previous incident of aggression between them.)

In reading about orcas, I have learned that in the wild their relationships are extraordinarily stable and enduring. They are family-oriented animals, staying close together in pods throughout their lives. There is a particularly strong bond between orca mother and calf.

At SeaWorld, your shows tend to play up the relationship between orca and human trainer, but the real bond---the instinctive bond---is between orca mother and calf.

The “Blackfish” film highlights an incident where an orca calf was removed from its mother at a very young age. It’s the most compelling part of the movie.

Kalina (“Baby Shamu”) was born to Katina on September 26, 1985 and was taken from her mother in 1990 at age four and a half.

In “Blackfish,” former SeaWorld trainer Carol Ray recalled being mocked by a co-worker after raising objections to the Katina/Kalina separation. The underlying message was clear: do not regard the animals and their well-being so much that you question company directives.

After the separation of Kalina from her mother, Ms. Ray observed that Katina remained immobile in the corner of the pool emitting loud, heart-wrenching cries throughout the night. Katina’s handlers say that she made sounds that night that they had not heard her make before.

In the “Death At SeaWorld” book, Dr. Naomi Rose said, “The destruction of the family structure that is so critical to orca mental health and well-being has turned some whales into sociopaths. They’re all socially warped because they didn’t swim with their mothers long enough to learn to be orcas.”

Christmas Eve, 2009. Trainer Alexis Martinez was attacked and killed by an orca owned by SeaWorld at Loro Parque in the Canary Islands.

In Secretary of Labor v. SeaWorld of Florida, LLC, your company tried to distance itself from Loro Parque. The “Blackfish” film depicted SeaWorld curator, Kelly Clark, testifying under oath that she had no knowledge of an affiliation between SeaWorld and Loro Parque.

There was plenty of affiliation between the parks.

SeaWorld leased five orcas to Loro Parque. A trainer from SeaWorld San Diego was sent to supervise training at Loro Parque.

In “Blackfish,” Loro Parque employee, Suzanne Allee, recalled that your company sent the orcas to a park that was not ready for them and to a staff that had little or no experience working with orcas. She added that Loro Parque did not have a good reputation within the industry.

The SeaWorld orcas chewed the paint off the walls of their enclosure at Loro Parque and endured stressful endoscopy procedures. Alexis Martinez, was attacked and killed by Keto (the offspring of Kalina, the original “Baby Shamu.”)

Two months later, on February 24, 2010, senior SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau was scalped and dismembered by Tilikum during a “Dine With Shamu” performance at SeaWorld in Orlando.

Mr. Atchison, it is clear to me that a callous mishandling and abuse of killer whales runs through the history of your company to the present day.

Whatever challenges orcas face in the ocean, confining them to the relatively shallow pools of a marine mammal park where they are exploited for short-term gain is no real solution.

If all the orcas on the planet were rounded up and put into SeaWorld parks it would probably hasten the demise of the species. Experts agree that many of the orcas in your collection are so damaged by life in captivity that they could not be expected to survive and function normally if they were released to the wild. Captivity makes orcas weaker, not stronger.

While your company attempts to make excuses, assign blame, and disparage and discredit its critics---the public is beginning to lose faith in SeaWorld. And rightly so.

My family and I will not visit SeaWorld or any park that displays orcas.

I would support the passage of a new law prohibiting the housing and display of captive orcas in the United States.

Jim, the Shamu show has got to go.
 

briar-rose

New Member
Good letter!
I've never been to Sea World and refuse to go because of the suffering of the animals. People need to understand that the whales (it's not just the orcas that are suffering) live a horrible live in these tanks and are not happy performing tricks.
 

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
I am naturally inclined to the animal rights' movement position.

Except...they just don't have a sense of humour! All that text, and not once anything like 'shamuful conduct....does it not Dawn on you that Tilikum loves him some fresh orcanic food...you've got blood on your hands, shamu on you'
 

OFTeric

Well-Known Member
Here is the thing you all need to remember about BlackFish is that most of the stories told in BF are half the story, and a lot of it was out of context.

Samantha Berg who is used in most of the movie, was a trainer for less than 2 years, and only spent a few months with Tilikum before she was let go.

Most of what she recounts is 2nd hand knowledge.

Now about trainers being hurt. Wild animals are... wild animals. And you can't ignore that the 10 years between incidents with Tilikum there were THOUSANDS of interactions with him. Every day he is hand fed. Every day trainers work with him. Every day. If Tilikum was crazy or psychotic, there would be no way to work with this animal on a daily basis.

Sadly animals aren't robots, and they have bad days, or act in ways that when you are 12,000 pounds and the person working with you is 120 pounds, when you are that much larger, any slight action that would be overly playful, malicious, disruptive can be fatal.

In all honestly when you look at the amount of daily interaction, with these animals, the safety record is really pretty incredible.

SeaWorld is still sadly dealing with a problem that was created by Sea Land of the Pacific. And sometimes there just aren't easy answers.

I still support SeaWorld, and I applaud their efforts to constantly strive to improve the quality of care of the animals in their parks.
 

JPatton

Active Member
Original Poster
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The troubles with Tilikum are only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of troubles at SeaWorld. They cannot all be blamed on SeaLand of the Pacific—a park that closed twenty-one years ago.

Samantha Berg worked at all three stadiums at SeaWorld Orlando. She was working at Shamu Stadium the day Tilikum arrived. She has direct, firsthand knowledge of Tilikum and---having earned an animal science degree from Cornell University---was qualified to speak about SeaWorld’s breeding program in “Blackfish.”

Samantha left SeaWorld on good terms in 1993. She was not “let go.”

The way OFTeric marginalized Samantha Berg in his post is part of the “disparaging and discrediting” the critics that I described in my letter to Jim Atchison.

“I am not against captivity because of accidents; it is because I want these animals to have better lives.”
-- Dr. John Jett
 

OFTeric

Well-Known Member
header.jpg


The troubles with Tilikum are only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of troubles at SeaWorld. They cannot all be blamed on SeaLand of the Pacific—a park that closed twenty-one years ago.

Samantha Berg worked at all three stadiums at SeaWorld Orlando. She was working at Shamu Stadium the day Tilikum arrived. She has direct, firsthand knowledge of Tilikum and---having earned an animal science degree from Cornell University---was qualified to speak about SeaWorld’s breeding program in “Blackfish.”

Samantha left SeaWorld on good terms in 1993. She was not “let go.”

The way OFTeric marginalized Samantha Berg in his post is part of the “disparaging and discrediting” the critics that I described in my letter to Jim Atchison.

“I am not against captivity because of accidents; it is because I want these animals to have better lives.”
-- Dr. John Jett

Glad she is using that knowledge and eduction in her current job as an Acupuncturist in Alaska.
 

BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
Glad she is using that knowledge and eduction in her current job as an Acupuncturist in Alaska.
After seeing Bkackfish and The Cove before it, it was pretty much impossible to justify paying even the reduced $50.00 weekday price to go here, but my friend wanted to do the roller coasters, so we figured that our tickets would pay for a few bags of penguin food, and we went. I could absolutely not watch the orca show, but we were by the dolphin show when it was about to start and against my better judgment, we went. It was awful seeing these animals being forced to do all these tricks in a relatively small tank for popcorn eating tourists. They do not want to be there.

This was my first and last time at Sea Workd. They need to do away with whale and dolphin shows once and for all.
 

unkadug

Follower of "Saget"The Cult
Yeah but see, this is just a comment, and not a protest. I'm sorry someone said something negative about your beloved captive whale show. I'll do my best to refrain myself in the future.
Thank you...now if we could just get the others to stop their incessant complaining.

BTW...I'm glad to know that you are an animal mind reader. Buddy "the fish whisperer". (it's a joke I know they are mammals)
 

englanddg

One Little Spark...
I am naturally inclined to the animal rights' movement position.

Except...they just don't have a sense of humour! All that text, and not once anything like 'shamuful conduct....does it not Dawn on you that Tilikum loves him some fresh orcanic food...you've got blood on your hands, shamu on you'
Yeah...well...the tweet from Morgan Spurlock (famous for his McDonald's diet documentary) used on the "critical review" picture in the OP..."Dying to see this movie". :eek:
 

Megalodumb

Well-Known Member
After seeing Bkackfish and The Cove before it, it was pretty much impossible to justify paying even the reduced $50.00 weekday price to go here, but my friend wanted to do the roller coasters, so we figured that our tickets would pay for a few bags of penguin food, and we went. I could absolutely not watch the orca show, but we were by the dolphin show when it was about to start and against my better judgment, we went. It was awful seeing these animals being forced to do all these tricks in a relatively small tank for popcorn eating tourists. They do not want to be there.

This was my first and last time at Sea Workd. They need to do away with whale and dolphin shows once and for all.
This^
I went to Sea World as a child, but at that age didn't understand the consequences that went into me being entertained at an aquatic life park. I enjoyed seeing the animals, but never questioned as to how they got there, and why they were there simply for my amusement as a tourist. (Most children don't look at things this way).

As an adult I refuse to give the place a nickel of my money. I hope Blackfish is an eye-opening experience for many people who neglect to count the costs for some of their forms of entertainment.
 
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JPatton

Active Member
Original Poster
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Look at a six-month chart of SeaWorld stock at Yahoo! Finance.

The stock opened on April 19 at $33.52. It peaked at $38.92 on July 11, and has been declining in value ever since.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s “Blackfish” opened “wide” on July 19.

Discuss….

"We need to bring an end to animals for entertainment. It is sooo last century." --Gabriela Cowperthwaite
 

ScoutN

OV 104
Premium Member
View attachment 34637

Look at a six-month chart of SeaWorld stock at Yahoo! Finance.

The stock opened on April 19 at $33.52. It peaked at $38.92 on July 11, and has been declining in value ever since.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s “Blackfish” opened “wide” on July 19.

Discuss….

"We need to bring an end to animals for entertainment. It is sooo last century." --Gabriela Cowperthwaite

Using that as a reason for stock decline is stretching silly putty 100 miles long in a black hole. The stock price was heavily inflated from opening. Add in Blackstone raking all the profits to pay themselves back for the purchase and pocketing the IPO dollars as another reason. Add in the fact that over a billion in expansions since the 09 buyout were done with debt that SEAS was saddled with when it went public. Then factor in declining Entertainment quality and poor management at one of their flagship parks that is in Va. THAT is the reason for stock price falling. It is going to head into the upper 20 dollar range where it reflects its true value. Some piddly little bias documentary has not affected it.

Ding try again.
 

JPatton

Active Member
Original Poster
Using that as a reason for stock decline is stretching silly putty 100 miles long in a black hole. Some piddly little bias documentary has not affected it.

I didn't say the movie is the reason for the stock's decline. I was careful to not say that in my post.

I think the timing of the decline is interesting, coinciding with the wide release of the film and I put that up for discussion.

Thanks for your comments.

"We need to bring an end to animals for entertainment. It is sooo last century." --Gabriela Cowperthwaite
 
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