I fell in love with Seaworld when I was five years old, the very first time I came to Orlando. My parents didn’t have a lot of money. We didn’t stay on Disney property, and we spent a day at Animal Kingdom and a day at Magic Kingdom. We also spent a day at SeaWorld because my Mom loves animals and thought that was important. To this day when we talk about that trip, she tells me how SeaWorld was almost the best part because we had no expectations. I remember having SeaWorld Littlest Pet Shop toys and taking Shamu shaped vitamins. The dog we rescued when I was twelve was named Clyde after one of the sea lions because he barked like a seal.
When I was getting ready to come to Orlando on my college program, my mom and I were coming a few days early for a mini vacation. I wasn’t going to spend the money on Disney tickets when I’d be able to get us in in a few days time, so we looked at SeaWorld. An annual pass was only about $150 at the time, so if we went twice with the free parking it essentially paid for itself in savings. I didn’t hesitate, and I bought one for my mom too. I even added Aquatica because adding it to the pass was roughly the same price as a one day ticket. My mother and I have been SeaWorld annual passholders for four years, and she doesn’t even live in the state.
Now if you’re anti-SeaWorld, you’ve probably stopped reading already, or never started reading in the first place since there’s a whale in the site’s logo. If you’re still with me, I ask you to hang on a little longer.
For quite literally the first time in forever, I have a video project I’m working on. I haven’t used my editing software in well over two years until the past couple of weeks, but once upon a time this was my life. One of the cool things about knowing about how movies are made and edited together is you can see how simple it is to make anything look like, well, anything. I know you’ve seen it on YouTube: Harry Potter as a romantic comedy or The Shining as a family film. They’re hilarious because you know the actual movie is nothing like the video you’re watching.
There is not a documentary in this world that doesn’t have some sort of slant or bias. There is always some shot, some interview, that parts of wound up on the cutting room floor (so to speak) that didn’t line up with the producer’s vision.
The same can be said of SeaWorld and the pile of lies that is Blackfish I have a very deep hatred for the people who made that film and the horrible things that have resulted because of it. I will not go into the inaccuracies of Blackfish myself as it’s been done before, however, I will include links at the bottom of this post if you’d like to read for yourself.
The director of Blackfish set out to make a name for herself and to make money. That’s all it was, and she’s barely done that because I had to Google her name for this article. When some of the people interviewed were upset after the film’s release that their words were taken out of context, Gabriela Cowperthwaite asked them to remain quiet until after the film festival season.
All this film has succeeded in doing is harming animals. In 2010 I was in Orlando only a few months after the death of Trainer Dawn Brancheau, right after the orca shows had been changed with the new OSHA standards enforced on the parks. I talked to an educator at the underwater orca viewing during the evening show and there was only one whale in the pool, Tilikum. The educator and I talked about how disappointed she was in the new show, but it was what had to be done. The trainers weren’t permitted in the water anymore. She told me how SeaWorld’s trainers are essentially Olympic class athletes and how their entire lives are dedicated to these animals. This was a front line employee who’s job is to talk about animals. In my two and a half years at Disney, I never spoke so highly of the company. She went on about how Dawn came to SeaWorld as a child and saw the orca show, and set her life on a course to become a whale trainer. Bridgette Pirtle, a trainer who was interviewed for Blackfish and later came out against the film, had a similar experience and dedicated her life to animals, because she was exposed to them as a child at SeaWorld. I may not have turned around and dedicated my life to these amazing animals, but I love them and am inspired by them, and by the people who care for them. People need SeaWorld so they can see these animals up close for themselves and learn why they should care about them.
I wrote a draft of this article a long time ago, and I’ve essentially rewritten most of it, but I knew the day would come when I would need to post it. You might be wondering why that day is today. Last night SeaWorld posted an update that left me heartbroken. SeaWorld San Antonio’s three month old orca calf passed away yesterday. While Kyara’s passing in itself is devastating, I am more upset that SeaWorld is once again going to suffer bad press for something that is not their fault. Kyara was SeaWorld’s last calf that they were ever going to have. In March of 2016 SeaWorld announced the end of their orca breeding program due to the fallout of Blackfish, and when Kyara was born three months ago she was the final birth of that program. (Orca gestation period ranges from fifteen to eighteen months.) The cause of death is not yet known, but is suspected to be pneumonia. It is one of the highest causes of morbidity or sickness in whales and dolphins, both in the wild and captivity.
As I said in January when Tilikum passed away, no one is more upset about the death of any animal than those who worked with them. I can only imagine the pain the SeaWorld trainers are feeling.
I remember groups like PETA celebrating the end of the breeding program, and while I’m pretty much of the opinion if PETA is for something that generally means it’s bad, I don’t understand why anyone is happy about less whales in the world. This also means at some point SeaWorld will have only one whale left and it will be all alone. Why does anyone think this is a good idea? I understand why SeaWorld made this choice, because of outside influences that have no idea what they’re talking about.
Despite all the measures SeaWorld has taken to appease the public, ticket sales are plummeting. The SeaWorld parks are suffering as a whole. I’m sure some people hope this will eventually mean the end of SeaWorld, and it is a day I am scared is coming. A day when a five year old and her parents can’t go to the parks and develop a life long love of animals. A day when a little girl can’t see a trainer working with animals and say, “That’s what I want to do when I grow up!”
A day without SeaWorld will also mean a day with less resources to help animals in the wild. Over the past fifty plus years, SeaWorld has rescued over 30,000 animals. When I first wrote this article six months ago, the numbers were closer to 29,000. Of course there are other agencies that assist with rescuing animals, but if we were to lose one of the biggest organizations, some would obviously get lost through the cracks.
Manatees are one of my favorite animals. SeaWorld Orlando is one of three places in the state of Florida authorized to treat critically injured manatees. You know what the other two are? The Lowry Park Zoo and the Miami Seaquarium. I’ve actually seen both the Lowry Park’s and SeaWorld’s manatee rescue facility. They both do a wonderful job, but Lowry Park’s shows their age much more. Their pool bottoms are wooden instead of metal or plastic, and they don’t have as easy a way of closing it off from the public. I got to see the Lowry Park rescue team at work when they were treating an injured manatee back in 2014. Four people struggling with an animal that didn’t know they were trying to help it. I spent a lot of my life wrestling with dogs that didn’t want their nails cut, I can’t imagine wrestling with a 600 lbs. mass of blubber that doesn’t want its antibiotics. They didn’t care they were getting soaked and could easily be hurt by a flailing creature that wanted them to stop. While it was amazing to watch, I’m sure it’s more stressful for the animal and the caregivers with people watching. I can only imagine the little kids yelling, “They’re hurting it!” SeaWorld has the ability to close theirs off completely if there is an animal in need of care at that moment. I’m not saying one is better than the other, I’m saying we can’t afford to lose either.
In one of my favorite supposed-animal-rights-activists-causing-more-harm-than-good stories, SeaWorld rescue workers in California had to get the police involved because protesters were preventing them from getting to the injured animal. Let me repeat. So called animal rights activists would rather protest than let rescuers save the animals.
When animal organizations are suffering financially, they do not cut programs. They do not cut care. They cut staff. I know people who have lived this first hand not just in Orlando, but all over the country.
Earlier this year, SeaWorld announced a layoff of 320 people. I texted my friend Morgan in a panic because his girlfriend is an attractions supervisor there. I was worried what would happen if they had just suddenly lost half their income. Thankfully they were fine because cuts weren’t made to attractions teams. They were made to the animal trainer teams. I happened to be working with another friend that day who is a part time trainer at Discovery Cove, SeaWorld’s park that allows you to swim with dolphins. I watched her phone blow up night as her friends’ lives were destroyed.
Yes, I said destroyed. These people dedicated their whole lives to the care and study of these animals, spending years and thousands of dollars in school to learn about them and strive for the chance to work with them. It’s not like you can turn around and just go work somewhere else on a whim. Jobs working with animals are hard to come by, and it’s much less expensive to use interns and people fresh out of school than seasoned trainers. I know someone with nearly a decade’s experience with everything from tiger sharks to actual tigers, and while he’s a Cast Member he does not work at Animal Kingdom. So 320 people had their dreams crushed and had their livelihoods ruined.
People act like SeaWorld is just a company. They forget that it is made up of people who care about these animals. They care so much they have dedicated their lives to working with them, because they had to in order to get the job. Behind every trainer there’s ten more that want the chance to work with these amazing creatures, so in order to get it you have to want it the most and work the hardest. Then to have a film maker who knows nothing about the subject on which she speaks take that all away, to threaten the future of these animals, it makes my blood boil.
I will always stand with SeaWorld. Twenty Something in Orlando will always stand with SeaWorld. Twenty Something in Orlando will always be pro-SeaWorld. This site is still extremely new and I hope to grow my readership, but if that is something you have a problem with, this blog is not for you.
Links:
- Save the Manatee: a site with information on manatee rescues in Florida.
- Manatee Rescue: Manatees rescued in Florida. A whole lot at once.
- Everything Wrong in Blackfish: It’s a long list.
- Awesome Ocean: An actual animal rights site that believes in SeaWorld.
- SeaWorld Has to Get The Cops To Help a Sea Lion
- SeaWorld’s History of Rescues
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