For years, animal rights activists and scientists have been talking about the negative effects that captivity has on highly intelligent and social animals such as orcas and dolphins. But now, it’s becoming more and more common that SeaWorld’s own visitors are witnessing these effects firsthand—and capturing this cruelty on film.
While performing a useless “trick,” this dolphin collided with another dolphin and was thrown from her tiny tank at SeaWorld San Antonio. She lay bleeding and helpless on the concrete as guests looked on.
This pilot whale struggled in shallow water for 25 minutes before a SeaWorld employee came to push him back into the water. Horrified guests screamed, “The dolphin—he’s stuck!”
When a 12,000-pound predator is put into a small tank with humans, it’s not only unhealthy for the animal but also dangerous for humans. Here, SeaWorld trainer Ken Peters is in the jaws of Kasatka, an orca who was captured off the coast of Iceland in 1978.
This orca, hopelessly confined to only 0.0001 percent of the space the animal would’ve had in nature, repeatedly banged his or her head on the concrete.
This orca floats lifelessly while cruelly confined to a tiny concrete tank. In the wild, this orca would swim more than 100 miles a day and be in motion almost constantly.
This orca was filmed vomiting—a behavior that’s rarely seen in the wild.
This video shows a dolphin who bit a child at SeaWorld.
How You Can Help
These are all clips of incidents caught on tape by visitors at SeaWorld’s parks. If this is happening in front of the public, imagine what goes on behind closed doors. Never go to any SeaWorld park, and urge your family and friends to stay away, too. Remember: Every dollar spent at SeaWorld goes directly toward animal suffering.
