On Thursday, SeaWorld Entertainment announced that he breeding of killers whales will come to and end after years of pressure from animal rights activists.
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SeaWorld on Thursday announced it has stopped breeding orcas, or killer whales, and those animals under the company’s care will be the last generation kept in its water parks.
SeaWorld said it would end its breeding immediately and planned to roll out orca-enrichment programs, which will feature more natural environments in addition to existing education and research programs in the next few years among its parks in San Diego, San Antonio, and Orlando, Florida.
“These changes are something that advocates have been urging for years, and I think SeaWorld will find that visitors will reward their actions with a renewed interest in the parks”, Representative Schiff said in a statement on Thursday.
The park and popular tourist destination has faced criticism from animal rights groups over its treatment of orcas, which opponents say are kept in tanks that are too small, fed improper diets and forced to perform tricks.
“It’s a momentous announcement, and it comes nearly exactly a year after Ringling Brothers agreed to phase out its elephant acts in traveling circuses”, said Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.
“For as long as they live, the orcas at SeaWorld will stay in our parks”.
“Blackfish” examined the death of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau, who was killed by an orca named Tilikum.
“It would be easier from a PR perspective to put them in a sea cage, but if we did that and it failed … it would be on us and we’d be criticized for that”, he said.
“They will still be there, but it’ll be much more educational and you’ll learn about the plight of the killer whales in the wild as opposed to a theatrical show”, said Manby.
The Humane Society of the United States lauded the move, saying it “commends SeaWorld for its game-changing commitment to end breeding of orcas, a long-held goal of many animal advocacy organisations”. “And now we need to change too”, says Reilly.
SeaWorld, which has parks in San Diego, Orlando and San Antonio, has 29 killer whales under its care, with only five of them captured in the wild and the rest born in captivity. The first killer whale in the company’s care was born in a SeaWorld park in 1985. Releasing them into the wild, according to Manby, would do them more harm than good. The decision from SeaWorld to stop the killer whales’ breeding was widely celebrated by animal rights groups as well as people in disagreement with having animals confined to live their lives in a fish tank.
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SeaWorld will not release any orcas into the wild, as they “would likely die”, Manby said in a Los Angeles Times Op-ed published yesterday. At the time, Manby said the undercover workers had been sent to protect the safety of SeaWorld employees and customers, but he vowed to end the practice.
