By JULIET PEREZ
Staff Writer
In SeaWorld the mistreatment of marine animals is extreme. Although a lot of people see animals who live underwater as less important than those above land, I don’t think that makes the abuse that takes place at this park justified. SeaWorld is popular for the orca abuse and the deaths resulting. From the very beginning, baby orcas are taken from their homes to be put into captivity, this already induces so much trauma and stress on the animals. At the park the treatment just gets worse, killer whales are forced to be tank mates with incompatible animals which lead to fights and fatal injuries. The stress and frustration lead to abnormal psychological behaviors such as repeated swimming back and forth, chewing on the metal bars of their tanks leaving them with broken teeth, aggression, self-harm, negligence of their offspring, banging their heads against the walls of their tanks, and bad eating habits. Orcas are often drugged by trainers in an effort to calm the animals down when they are frustrated or stressed. The female orcas are also drugged when they resist being forcefully impregnated, and the males are sexually abused for their sperm. The pain on the animals doesn’t stop there, due to a careless trainer, an orca named Kotar was killed by a pool gate closing on his skull and fracturing it. The undeniable abuse of these animals causes them to behave in ways they would never do in the wild. Four human deaths by orcas have taken place at SeaWorld, and in the wild, absolutely no fatal injuries inflicted by orcas have been recorded. FORTY-NINE orcas have died at SeaWorld. The killer whales aren’t the only animals who reside at SeaWorld that deal with the abuse and terrible conditions. A walrus named Obie was blind and kept in a cramped tank where he would act under psychological stress, he would regurgitate his food and then re-swallow it, he died after 18 years of the same traumatic conditions. In 2017, two bonded polar bears, Szenja and Snowflake, were separated, they spent 20 years together with no interaction with other polar bears, after the separation Szenja died from heartbreak.
The abuse of these animals will not stop until we do something about it. In order to help, people need to stop funding SeaWorld and stop going to the park. The funding is what keeps the park up and running, if everyone stops going, the park will eventually have to close down. These animals don’t deserve to live their lives in a tank.