SeaWorld is a very popular aquatic theme park located in San Antonio, Orlando and, most close to us, San Diego. It has been known that SeaWorld does not treat the animals the way they should be treated. The poor treatment of the animals has been brought to light by protesters and the stunts that Steve-O did such as replacing the word “drive” from a road sign to make it say “SeaWorld Sucks” along with climbing a crane in Hollywood and inflating an orca ballon with “SeaWorld Sucks” on it. He was inspired after watching a documentary about an Orca named “Tilikum”.
SeaWorld has had 44 Orca whales die under their care. The orcas are clearly under stress as one Orca named “Tilikum” has killed two trainers and one SeaWorld intruder. He was punished by spending a year in solitary confinement.
The breeding program was discontinued after protests on the tiny living conditions of dolphins and Orcas. The former orca trainer John Hargrove explained that when the animals are confined, they have health issues and become stressed.
However, SeaWorld is not all bad. SeaWorld rescues animals in bad condition and rehabilitates them. After the animals are heathy, they release them back to their homes. They feed the animals regularly and they do not outright purposely hurt them.
After knowing the suffering of animals, people decide if they should still go to SeaWorld. I believe that SeaWorld is still worth going to. Everywhere we go, there are bad things happening and you can’t let that affect your day.
Many people here at SRA have gone to SeaWorld because San Diego is only around an hour away. SeaWorld is not too expensive for a theme park and is high quality and fun.
I have been going to SeaWorld frequently ever since I was a young child. I have known that it’s messed up for the orcas to be in small enclosures but I do not let that effect my experience. If you are looking for a fun time with your family, SeaWorld is a great option and you can’t let just a few stressed animals effect you.
Junior Alec Finch says, “It doesn’t really matter if people go or not cause I don’t really care.”
I agree with Finch’s statement because in some situations you should not let problems that don’t effect you get to your head. SeaWorld does much more good than bad. The smaller animals are treated the same way they would at the zoo and I feel like people focus on just the orcas because of the size.
There are only eight orcas at SeaWorld San Diego and thousands more smaller animals. This means that to our knowledge, only eight animals are actively stressed and we focus on them because they are massive. The orcas are not treated bad purposely and I’m sure the trainers love them.
Letting eight animals in small enclosures should not throw off your whole experience. Im not saying that if you oppose SeaWorld then you should still go and I respect the opinion. You should only go somewhere where you are comfortable. My point is that you should not avoid going to SeaWorld if you are still open minded to the idea.
