Captivity Industry

In my opinion there is no doubt that marine animals should not be held in captivity. Marine mammals are a part of nature and should not be bought, sold or thrown in an aquarium. I believe that they have the right to be kept in their natural environment. There are many convincing reasons to support this opinion. Captivity causes many health problems in marine mammals. Many tanks have water full of chemicals and bacteria; these results in blindness and many skin problems in dolphins and other marine mammals. Marine mammals in captivity die from pneumonia, ulcers and other stress related diseases. Most of these helpless creatures suffer from boredom. Dolphins in the wild can swim from 40-100 miles per day but in pools they go around swimming in repetitive patterns. Due to boredom and limited space many dolphins abuse themselves; they often bang their heads against tank and aquarium walls. Some of these poor innocent creatures face abusive treatment by their caretakers, thus shortening their lifespan. In fact Keiko, the killer whale, the star of Free Willy, was a victim of this type of abuse. Marine mammals breed very poorly in captivity with very high infant death rates. For this reason, when a baby dolphin is born into captivity its birth is usually kept a secret from its mother until it shows signs of survival. Marine mammals do breed in captivity, but the birth rate in captivity is not as successful as in the wild. Many people think that marine mammals should remain in captivity. I realize that some people may believe that captivity increases the life span of certain animals, but the truth is if these creatures are so happy in captivity, why do they die so fast? Those who work with captive animals in aquariums and zoos have a special obligation to convey knowledge of the natural world to the public, to interpret the lives of animals accurately, to portray animals as they are, to display animals under conditions that, so far as possible, allow them to behave naturally, and to offer them adequate social contact, ideally with others of their species. In addition, a workable ethic for the treatment of animals in captivity must include a requirement to provide appropriate space, nutrition, and health care. One of the Marine park representatives claimed that" If bringing animals into captivity causes adverse effects, these effects, on balance, are outweighed by such benefits as enhancement of human appreciation for all animals, conservation of species, and advancement of knowledge."
What Marine park components are doing with dolphins is unethical and they do not have the right to disprove other people's disagreement about animal captivity. All of us are trying to come to terms with a world which the human species has put in peril by its actions of domination over nature. The removal of these few animals probably does not represent a risk to the future of whales and dolphins as a species; in fact, as we have seen, some of what is learned in captivity may in future be helpful to wild populations. But the ethical issue should not be dismissed because only a few animals are involved. Whether or not animals have evolved sufficiently to acquire rights equivalent to those recognized for human beings or animals are severely harmed by life in captivity, this is an issue involving not only a couple hundred orcasbut also millions of people - the millions who see orcas every year in marine parks as well as those who choose to stay away. The feelings of all of these people, their ethical views, are crucial. Feelings about animals differ of course from person to person. The differences are partly cultural, partly the differences between urban vs. rural backgrounds. Developmental psychologists tell us that our caring about animals - mostly acquired as children and developed as young adults - is closely tied to our feelings about nature, as we 11 as other people, including our families and ourselves. We must explore these links and develop them. Our improvement and ultimate survival as a society depends upon fostering respectful links with animals. Part of that freedom is freedom from captivity. Complicating the issue of not wanting to manage orcas, however, is the fact that as we move into the 21st Century, habitat for all animals, in competition with humans, is increasingly in short supply. For better or worse, humans have the job of managing the Earth. Rather than pressing for no management, we must work for more caring management - utilizing a technique that business calls hands-off management. We must intensify non-invasive research programs and, at the same time, fight against those who would distort scientific information or use it, for example, to exploit whales. We need the scientific background to know when whale populations are in trouble and what might be done to help them. Humans, despite a poor record of respecting the rights of other humans, as well as whales in general, or orcas in particular, are now in the position of helping or hurting all life on Earth. The question may well become: Can humans be good managers without assuming the traditional role of exploiter?