2010-03-07

LA Times On Why SeaWorld Is Out Of Step With The Times

The LA Times editorial says that the days of keeping cetaceans in captivity should be numbered.

The report says Like just about anyone with the ability to say, "Ooh! Aah!," we've gotten a kick out of watching those strikingly marked, black-and-white cetaceans leaping and waving and splashing in response to human commands at marine amusement parks. We've marveled at their size when we've gotten a close-up look through the clear walls of their tanks.

But its time for the killer whale show to end, or at least to prepare for its final splash once the orcas in captivity today have died. In an era when society is growing more aware of the need for humane zoo enclosures for elephants -- if they should be enclosed in zoos at all, a question that hasn't been resolved -- were still complicit in turning killer whales into circus animals, confining them to tanks that barely register as swimming space compared with the 100 miles a day they roam in the wild and that don't even pretend to mimic their natural habitat. Many a goldfish gets a better break.

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