“The return of the northern gray wolf is a welcome sign of nature's ability — and man's — to change and adapt. People once prided themselves on shoving nature aside to make way for civilization; now, more of us pride ourselves on having the brains to undo our mistakes. The gray wolf's remarkable success has cheered wildlife biologists: Not only have its numbers increased, but it has expanded its territory by finding its niche in a much-changed environment. That means, barring further stupid actions by mankind, it should be able to thrive on its own and play a helpful environmental role as a natural predator.”

And please, don’t offer me condolences about Cecil unless you’re also willing to offer me condolences for villagers killed or left hungry by his brethren, by political violence, or by hunger.”

Brilliant.

In SeaWorld’s case, at least a sixth of its whales have “failed” – that’s a double digit failure rate, which in any other industry would result in a recall.

Dr. Naomi Rose: This should not matter, based on SeaWorld’s own arguments. SeaWorld says captivity is a healthy environment, so its killer whales should be living lives at the longer end of the species’ potential (different ecotypes are not yet considered different species and even if they were, there is no reason to assume their inherent maximum longevities would be different -- any differences in life span would likely be caused by extrinsic environmental factors). Captive killer whales should overall be living 50 to 90 years for females and 30 to 70 years for males, barring stochastic events. In addition, SeaWorld mixes ecotypes and different geographic regions within its collection and in its breeding program. This is not only inappropriate from a conservation standpoint but makes this bullet point somewhat irrelevant.

"Regarding SeaWorld's response, it is making an apples-to-oranges comparison," Naomi Rose, Ph.D., a marine mammal scientist at the Animal Welfare Institute, told The Dodo. "It is true that in-air noises like fireworks do not penetrate the air-water interface well. While the whales might be able to hear the fireworks underwater, the noise would be very muted and would probably not be very bothersome. What SeaWorld fails to address (on purpose, no doubt) is that captive orcas spend an unnatural amount of time at the surface of the water – in fact, with their head (and ears) out of the water. As a matter of standard operating procedure, the whales are taught "stationing" behavior — to position themselves in front of their trainers, head out of the water — which is how they are fed."

“SeaWorld likes to say that they own only five orcas captured in the wild. More accurately, they have owned 32 killer whales captured in the wild throughout the company’s history, only five of whom have survived” John Hargrove, Beneath the Surface

“After the deaths of Alexis and Dawn in 2009 and 2010, SeaWorld took the $5 an hour increase away. Since waterwork was now proscribed by OSHA, the company explained, trainers weren’t swimming with the whales anymore and shouldn’t be paid the extra (at first known as “hazard pay,” then, for legal reasons, changed to a “premium”). They seemed to overlook the fact that Dawn was not performing waterwork when she was grabbed, pulled in and dismembered.” John Hargrove