Hey guys I'm gonna take just a moment to reach whatever audience I can about a topic I'm extremely passionate about.... I usually don't take my acitivism to Tumblr... but if you love me, take a quick read and sign the petition please 🙏🏻 💕🐋 - Sasha
SeaWorld, yet again, has done absolutely everything it can to make a quick buck, at the expense of the lives of innocent animals.
Under the guise of rescue, SeaWorld will be taking in 30 new beluga whales.
These highly intelligent creatures were sadly bred in captivity, and so release is simply not an option unless they are put in an open ocean pen, like SeaWorld promised to build in 2015 but never did.
They will be forced to perform, they will be subjected to food manipulation as part of their training and public presentations, a practice I believe is inappropriate for highly intelligent, social animals. They will have severe lack of proper veterinary care, they will be placed in tanks with other non-pod animals like the 36 other captive whales at SeaWorld. This treatment, as you could imagine, is known to cause extreme confusion, aggression, and violence in these animals.
We saw this in 2011... Dawn Brancheaux, a highly experienced trainer at SeaWorld was killed by Tilikum, a massive 14,000lb killer whale who'd been in her care for a decade. He drug her body under the water in front of families at a "Dinner with Shamu" show, and scalped her, ate her entire arm, and disembowled her. Lest we forget.
Tilikum was brought to SeaWorld under this same "rescue" story. Victoria's SeaLand Aquarium was closing due to funding/poor management, and the fact that Tilikum had already made headlines at the age of 4 for killing 17 year old Kelty Burne in his tank. SeaWorld stepped in and "saved" Tilly from the small enclosure, and he spent the next twenty years in a psychological torture chamber. He died alone in his tank, the park refusing further medical care after he developed a severe infection that spread to his internal organs and blood. It began as a tooth infection... one he attained while eating at the corners of his enclosure.
What happened was not his fault, or Dawn's, and may they both rest in peace. This cause was rather a severe lack of care for human and animal life on the part of SeaWorld. A company who despite agreeing to STOP CAPTIVE BREEDING in 2016 continues to do so to many other cetacean animals. A company that refused to listen to the protests of constituents, and ignored OSHA'S lawsuit in an appeal, and decided to continue Orca shows with human participation. Forcing animals and trainers to be in close proximity in volitile environments.
20 years later they've learned nothing.
To hear that 30 new animals will be distributed to these parks sickens me. They must be heald accountable.
I URGE YOU. DO NOT GO TO THESE PARKS.
Do not contribute to the suffering of these animals. Save your $ to see them in the wild where they belong. These highly intelligent, social, beautiful animals need to be protected, not captured and bred for entertainment. We cannot save these 30 Belugas (YET) but we can stop all breeding in captivity and give them a chance, if we're loud enough.
Signing this petition really helps, and I would greatly appreciate it 🙏🏻
I'm heading to Seattle to Pudget Sound in few weeks to see the Biggs orcas and help out with the conservation effort, my favorite part of the summer 💕 If your heart calls you to help, and you'd like to know other ways you can, please reach out to me!!!
