Sea World has posted Reponse to Blackfish

[The Empress Lilly]

You left out a few...
4. Whales do not have hot poker shoved through nose to install ring.
5. Whales are not doing unnatural behavior they don't already do in the wild.
6. Whales are taught to do natural behaviors on command through positive reinforcement.
7. Male whales are not castrated with no anesthesia.
8. The whales teeth are not removed with a hammer.

The comparison between the current treatment of captive whales and these dancing bears are as different as a Vietnam prison camp and and a celebrity rehab center in Malibu.

Vietnam prisoner camps comparisons are over the top. Too much drama.


As for the bear dancing - the bear dancers show these magnificent creatures to their audience! How else would children learn to love these majestic beasts! So that later in life they will want to protect them? And think of the bears! Surely they will die when they are released back into the wild!

Besides, some bear dancers have saved a few stray squirrels, so they are really environmentalists.


~ Goodness, when applied to bear instead of orca shows, to show the naked lunacy of the arguments, SEA's feeble spinning becomes simply awkward ~

 

[Master Yoda]

Vietnam prisoner camps comparisons are over the top. Too much drama.


As for the bear dancing - the bear dancers show these magnificent creatures to their audience! How else would children learn to love these majestic beasts! So that later in life they will want to protect them? And think of the bears! Surely they will die when they are released back into the wild!

Besides, some bear dancers have saved a few stray squirrels, so they are really environmentalists.


~ Goodness, when applied to bear instead of orca shows, to show the naked lunacy of the arguments, SEA's feeble spinning becomes simply awkward ~

You compare the unquestionably horrific treatment of a dancing bear to the humane treatment of a whale and I am the one being dramatic?

Keep trying to compare that apple to a suspension bridge.

 

[maxairmike]

Just curious, Empress, so entertain this thought. How do you apply these same ideas and principles to The Seas pavilion? How do you feel about the dolphin enclosure at SeaWorld (not the show, the large dolphin enclosure where the other dolphins live) in comparison to The Seas? Will you be ending your visits to Disney parks if you feel the space and interaction isn't adequate, would you be showing the same disdain?

As to SeaWorld's response, I feel it was a great response, and illustrates the shortcomings of the film very well. Great job by the SEAS team on it.

 

[luv]

Movie has had its hype and 15 minutes of fame. Boosted some numbers for the park. Just sad to see the greed some have.

I think that some people genuinely are against animal captivity. It comes from a good place and I have a lot of respect for the opinion, even if I don't completely share it.

Causing the family of Dawn Brancheau more grief...obviously is not deserving of respect. They've suffered enough and should be left alone to deal with their grief in whatever way works for them.

The movie people wanted their fifteen minutes (and their money!) They didn't care who they had to hurt or what lies they had to tell. They got their fifteen minutes and their money. They may one day have to pay the piper, they may not.

But it's dying down. We can go back to normal.

Zoos and Sea World have always had protestors and they always will.

I think we can all start moving on.

I just hope the trainers get to go back in the water. If not the trainers, let me!

 

[919Florida]

Once again we go off topic here. This is a topic to discuss SeaWorld's response not a place to bring up Vietnam Prison camps and Bears dancing. This has nothing at all to do with this thread. As for the poll that is very old news anyways staff have the right to vote in a poll if they want to. After all its the company they work for and if the beleive in them more power to them to vote. blackfish fans are always all over facebook and twitter telling people about new polls up and to go flood the voting with their votes. You don’t have a problem with that?

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Just curious, Empress, so entertain this thought. How do you apply these same ideas and principles to The Seas pavilion? How do you feel about the dolphin enclosure at SeaWorld (not the show, the large dolphin enclosure where the other dolphins live) in comparison to The Seas? Will you be ending your visits to Disney parks if you feel the space and interaction isn't adequate, would you be showing the same disdain?

Sure. fair enough. Here's me two years ago, long before Blackfish was ever even conceived of:

I have a certain uneasyness about keeping dolphins in an enclosed tank.

I'm not sure about keeping killer whales in places such as Sea World either.

From a thread on this very forum protesting the dolphins at EPCOT.
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...om-epcots-the-seas.841261/page-2#post-5035936

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Once again we go off topic here. This is a topic to discuss SeaWorld's response not a place to bring up Vietnam Prison camps and Bears dancing. This has nothing at all to do with this thread. As for the poll that is very old news anyways staff have the right to vote in a poll if they want to. After all its the company they work for and if the beleive in them more power to them to vote. blackfish fans are always all over facebook and twitter telling people about new polls up and to go flood the voting with their votes. You don’t have a problem with that?

SEA is a billion dollar corporation. They look like idiots when their pr consists of trying to skew online polls and forum debates. I mean, really? Online audience polls skewed by huge numbers of votes secretly coming from IP adresses registered to Sea World? That's just lame.


Also, SEA's response to Blackfish is the very topic of this thread. Can't blame us for Sea World's mishandling of Blackfish now being the textbook case in every pr class of how not to deal with outside criticism.

I'm tempted to make a poll here just to watch Sea World open 300 accounts just to vote in it!

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Ringling Brothers (among other circuses) have sold out performances all over the USA. Plenty of people are still taking their kids to see trained animals in these shows that included lions and tigers and elephants.

Really? Ok. I sorta assumed those circus shows with lions jumping through burning hoops were a thing of the past.

Anyway, if I may ask, what, to you, is acceptable on this sliding scale of animal abuse below. Which really goes to the heart of the Blackfish matter:

1) Bear Dancing
2) Massive killer whales in tiny tanks
3) Former Soviet Union zoos, you know the ones, with tigers on display in tiny rusty steel cages
4) Small mammals in a clown suit riding around on a skateboard at a kids performance

Mine: four is not for me but fine, three needs to slowly be reformed into a thing of the past, the first two are abusive and problematic and probably have no place in the Western world.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

You compare the unquestionably horrific treatment of a dancing bear to the humane treatment of a whale and I am the one being dramatic?

Keep trying to compare that apple to a suspension bridge.

A whale in a small tank. Indeed. But humane?

The best care in the world can't change that very inhumane act of putting a whale in a bathtub. It's like a parrot in those cages of old. Unless you are a spinach-munching tattooed sailor this has no place this side of 1950:

 

[919Florida]

A whale in a small tank. Indeed. But humane?
The best care in the world can't change that very inhumane act of putting a whale in a bathtub. It's like a parrot in those cages of old. Unless you are a spinach-munching tattooed sailor this has no place this side of 1950:

Im so tired of you people using the bathtub analogy. Please tell me the last time you were in a bathtub that you could fit seven other people in and still do fast swims from end to end. These whales are not in any bathtub. Far from it. Yes its know ocean but at Orlando its over 7 million gallons and over 40ft deep

SEA is a billion dollar corporation. They look like idiots when their pr consists of trying to skew online polls and forum debates. I mean, really? Online audience polls skewed by huge numbers of votes secretly coming from IP adresses registered to Sea World? That's just lame.

Where is the proof SEAWORLD (Not SEAS) told the employees to go and vote in these polls. The employees at SeaWorld are very passionate about their park and love what they do and they have every right to vote in any poll they want to. Just because they work at SeaWorld they are not allowed?

I'm tempted to make a poll here just to watch Sea World open 300 accounts just to vote in it!

And this is exactly what you blackfish people do all the time. I know a blackfish fan who has 8 Facebook accounts so she can reply on Facebook posts and make it look like more people are against SeaWorld then they really are. Its what you activist love to do. Make a stink on social media and cause fights.

 

[OFTeric]

HOW HOW HOW are we still talking about that OBJ poll when THE OSHA INVESTIGATOR is now being investigated. When the FILM has been PROVEN to have lied and manipulated the information, and people who appeared in it. When the entire construct of the film is from stock footage, crammed together with inexperienced and fired trainers, who drive a radical animal rights agenda.

(the exception being Mark Simmson who was lied to and is brilliant).

 

[englanddg]

HOW HOW HOW are we still talking about that OBJ poll when THE OSHA INVESTIGATOR is now being investigated. When the FILM has been PROVEN to have lied and manipulated the information, and people who appeared in it. When the entire construct of the film is from stock footage, crammed together with inexperienced and fired trainers, who drive a radical animal rights agenda.

(the exception being Mark Simmson who was lied to and is brilliant).

I abuse ponies.

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

I abuse ponies.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Im so tired of you people using the bathtub analogy. Please tell me the last time you were in a bathtub that you could fit seven other people in and still do fast swims from end to end. These whales are not in any bathtub. Far from it. Yes its know ocean but at Orlando its over 7 million gallons and over 40ft deep

To us, savannah dwelling apes, that tank may appear to be a large body of water. To an ocean creature designed to swim 100 kilometers a day and who calls its kin with a voice reaching many kilometers that water basin feels more like a straitjacket.

Forty feet deep? For a 14000lb ocean creature twentyfive feet in lenght? That's me locked for life in a bare steel cage of ten by ten foot. And two feet high - I can never really move in the 3rd dimension.

Where is the proof SEAWORLD (Not SEAS) told the employees to go and vote in these polls. The employees at SeaWorld are very passionate about their park and love what they do and they have every right to vote in any poll they want to. Just because they work at SeaWorld they are not allowed?

That overlooks the point: namely, that the skewing of the polls is done from two single SEA ip-adresses.
So unprofessional. 'Dear employees, please vote in these online forum polls, we've set up a computer in the break room for you.'

Coca-Cola would forever be the laughing stock of global pr firms if its employees were caught manipulating online 'Coke or Pepsi' forum polls from Coca-Cola headquarters.

Maybe our SEA insiders here can reveal to us if and how SEA has a presence on this forum too?

(SEA not to make them sound Seanister (they don't need any help with that!), but as shorthand, comparable to UNI and WDW / TWDC)

 

[The Empress Lilly]

How is this acceptable in 2014 Florida? If I permanently lock my dog up in a cage triple his lenght cops come over to my house to arrest me.



Best to leave these bloodsports to the Putin Games in Sochi. Not content to merely show the world how tough it is against homosexuality and the free press by beating up gays and reporters, Russia is also bent on showing the might of its authoritarian way by putting several killer whales on display for the Olympics. You keep some great company, Sea World!

Environmental groups and whale researchers are urging Olympic organizers to condemn the display of two captured killer whales at the Sochi Winter Games.

A Russian company captured seven orca whales in the sea of Okhotsk last summer, northeast of Japan, and is now preparing to ship two of them to its aquarium in Sochi to cash in on the upcoming Olympic Games.

B.C.-based whale researcher Paul Spong says it's deplorable that the company is doing this, adding that it’s not in the Olympic spirit.

“When they're captured, their families are just ripped apart,” says Spong. “And when they're put into captivity, they're really subject to sensory deprivation for years and years and years — it's hugely damaging to them."

Spong and other environmental groups want the International Olympic Committee to pressure the captors to release the whales back into the wild.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01/16/russian-orca-capture-sochi-olympics_n_4609732.html
​

 

[maxairmike]

I don't think you'll find many people that support Miami Seaquarium, even among those of us that support SeaWorld, as there are a lot of glaring and actual serious issues that are known at Miami Seaquarium. And the Russians, unfortunately, still appear to operate completely oblivious to the rest of the world. I think you would find everyone at SeaWorld appalled at the actions of the Sochi aquarium, which has absolutely 0 connection to SeaWorld, and is not relevant to the topic (see earlier statement about how Russia operates as a whole).

 

[919Florida]

How is this acceptable in 2014 Florida? If I permanently lock my dog up in a cage triple his lenght cops come over to my house to arrest me.



Best to leave these bloodsports to the Putin Games in Sochi. Not content to merely show the world how tough it is against homosexuality and the free press by beating up gays and reporters, Russia is also bent on showing the might of its authoritarian way by putting several killer whales on display for the Olympics. You keep some great company, Sea World!

Environmental groups and whale researchers are urging Olympic organizers to condemn the display of two captured killer whales at the Sochi Winter Games.

A Russian company captured seven orca whales in the sea of Okhotsk last summer, northeast of Japan, and is now preparing to ship two of them to its aquarium in Sochi to cash in on the upcoming Olympic Games.

B.C.-based whale researcher Paul Spong says it's deplorable that the company is doing this, adding that it’s not in the Olympic spirit.

“When they're captured, their families are just ripped apart,” says Spong. “And when they're put into captivity, they're really subject to sensory deprivation for years and years and years — it's hugely damaging to them."

Spong and other environmental groups want the International Olympic Committee to pressure the captors to release the whales back into the wild.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01/16/russian-orca-capture-sochi-olympics_n_4609732.html
​

This has nothing to do with SeaWorld so why are you posting it? The stadium you show is not SeaWorld its Miami SeaQuarium and then with the whales caught in Russia for the Olympics once again nothing to do with SeaWorld. So whats the point?

 

[919Florida]

That overlooks the point: namely, that the skewing of the polls is done from two single SEA ip-adresses.
So unprofessional. 'Dear employees, please vote in these online forum polls, we've set up a computer in the break room for you.'

Coca-Cola would forever be the laughing stock of global pr firms if its employees were caught manipulating online 'Coke or Pepsi' forum polls from Coca-Cola headquarters.

How do we know Coke don't have people voting in polls? You don't do you. Once again I see no problem with having SeaWorld employees voting in polls. This is a non news story. Like I said the employees at SeaWorld love their park and love what they do if they want to vote in a pool there is no reason to stop them.

To us, savannah dwelling apes, that tank may appear to be a large body of water. To an ocean creature designed to swim 100 kilometers a day and who calls its kin with a voice reaching many kilometers that water basin feels more like a straitjacket.

Forty feet deep? For a 14000lb ocean creature twentyfive feet in lenght? That's me locked for life in a bare steel cage of ten by ten foot. And two feet high - I can never really move in the 3rd dimension.

The animals at SeaWorld dont know the ocean because most of them are not from the ocean. The few that are from the ocean its been decades and decades of being at the park that I am sure they probably dont remember the ocean. SeaWorld has done a great job giving them large spaces to live and do a great job caring for and giving them a great life. Whether you will believe it or not they do. And once again I will say these animals at SeaWorld receive the best care. Better care then the majority of humans on this planet. I would personally love to be an animal at SeaWorld.

 

[JPatton]

Mark Simmons is an advocate for an industry. I think that many people within the business have, over time, developed a point of view regarding captive orcas that allows them to exploit them guilt-free.

Does the orca in the picture above look like it has been treated --- “like royalty?”

It’s time to get over this childish fantasy that the whales at SeaWorld live a life of luxury.

That’s thinking at the 5th grade level. (Fine---if you’re in 5th grade.)

Orcas are too large---too intelligent---too powerful---and too social (family-oriented) to be put on display in theme parks.

Even the most staunch supporters of SeaWorld are now wondering if its time to start thinking out of the (concrete) box.

 

[wm49rs]

Guess you got your contract renewed, eh?