Seaworld Controversy

Seaworld has been in the news lately for all the controversy surrounding the fees and fines that are being slapped on the company for the "lack of safety" for the trainers.  The article I read also mentioned that specifically, Seaworld was being fined for the death of one of their trainers a while back- Dawn Brancheau by one of their captive orcas, Tillicum.  The majority of the argument seems to be centered around whether Seaworld should be fined or not.

Is it just me, or is everyone ignoring/dancing around the real valid point here: THOSE ANIMALS SHOULD NOT BE IN CAPTIVITY BEING FORCED TO DO TRICKS ALL DAY IN THE FIRST PLACE.  Seaworld is evil to me.   How come nobody is talking about the REAL problem here - why are we allowing Seaworld to exist in the first place?  To me, it's blatant animal cruelty.  Maybe that's why they lash out from time to time and humans get killed?  It's an unpredictable huge wild animal.  How many safety precautions can you really take?

If it were up to me, Seaworld as a corporation would be killed, and the existing animals that have been raised in captivity would be relocated somewhere to live the rest of their days in peaceful captivity where they aren't being forced to perform daily, as releasing them into the wild would not be a valid option.  Why are we allowing Seaworld to exist?  To bring our children there and give them exhilaration by looking at the animals?  There are other, better ways to stimulate our children without animal cruelty involved.  The reasons for Seaworld existing in the first place are frivolous, faulty and immoral, and do not provide any thing near a valid reason for the park to exist.

While we're on the topic, I also believe that the amount of zoos we have in this country is out of control as well.  It is not necessary for so many animals to be suffering in small, rundown zoos that various cities across the nation are unable to maintain.  Since banning zoos entirely would not fly, I think we should have a very small amount of zoos in this country - destination zoos, that people would travel to and center their vacations around (like Disney World).  Maybe one for each region of the country. Large, well-kept zoos where the animals have enough space and resources to be able to live their lives in a somewhat more comfortable situation.  There is no reason to justify every halfway decent sized city in America having a zoo.  Multiple cities are unable to properly maintain these zoos due to budget issues, and the animals are the ones suffering because of it.

I'm sure you are already thinking of the particular incident I am going to mention as an example of why - Tatiana at the San Francisco zoo.  That was a combination of multiple factors: a run down facility that was unable to keep the tiger in captivity, zoogoers that were taunting the animal, and an animal that acted out due to the poor living situation it was forced to live in.  When you actually go to that tiger exhibit at the SF Zoo it's easy to see why that incident happened, and shocking that there haven't been more incidents like that.  It is one of the most depressing, inhumane things to see as it is basically a small setup of various square concrete spaces that are obviously not adequate to house tigers or lions, with cloudy Plexiglas windows to look at the motionless, depressed animals with.  That entire zoo is a pit of death and depression, in my opinion.

When you take a step back and look at it, it does seem a bit unbelievable just how many run-down zoos exist in this country, and how nobody seems to take issue with it.  Let's re-examine our morals and ethics behind animals in captivity.  Hopefully it will change for the better some day in the future. (By the way, how ridiculous is that picture up above?  It seems to encapsulate my entire argument just in how absurd it is.)