Living and working with WILD Animals

AP photo

After last week's devastating and shocking death of a whale trainer at Sea World Orlando, and all the analyst's reasonings etc. I had to post something about it.

An article on MSNBC quotes this: "Humans trying to incarcerate orcas or elephants or any type of large brain or large society species, it's proven it doesn't work," said Mark Berman, associate director at the environmental group Earth Island Institute in Berkeley, Calif. "They're just too big." No animals were meant to entertain humans, he said.

And another quote from someone else in the article:  Former SeaWorld head trainer Thad Lacinak says captive killer whales serve as ambassadors of the species to educate the public and help protect them in the wild. "These animals are invaluable in terms of what we can learn from them. And you cannot learn about killer whales through a pair of binoculars," Lacinak said.

Using killer whales to perform, or displaying animals at zoos, brings them to life for the public, he said, something that watching the Discovery Channel just can't do.

"We know for a fact that people do not learn in static conditions. They learn from these animals when they are entertained by them," Lacinak said. "That's just how people learn. They don't learn when they're bored ... They have a greater appreciation of the animals when they walk out." Lacinak also stated the obvious — that trainers know their jobs are inherently dangerous but take the risks because they believe they're outweighed by the rewards.

Ok, while the article relates this to other wild animals that are kept in captivity, like elephants, tigers, etc., they don't bring up the main point here. HELLO!!!!! THEY ARE WILD ANIMALS!  They were not meant to be companion animals like dogs and cats. They were not meant to be domesticated to the extent that you can trust them with your life. They still have all of their bred in WILD INSTINCTS!

They knew when they bought this animal that he had two deaths attributed to him. They knew they should always work around him with caution, but instead the trainer let her guard down and became complacent. And the whale knew it! Whales and dolphins like many other wild species KNOW when to take advantage or injure us. And I am not saying her death wasn't tragic in any way. But the fact is, she became complacent, she knew what she was dealing with. And my condolences and heart go out to her family.

Perhaps keeping an animal in captivity for the educational purpose is not necessarily a bad thing, but don't teach him to fetch and sit up and beg, don't degrade him by putting on a show. Especially something like a Orca. These animals may play on their own, they are protectie of their pods and family members, and they thrive by hunting. They hunt their favorite food, seal. And the sad thing is these animals in captivity don't get their proper and normal diet. I am sure all the animal rights groups would have problems with feeding the Orcas live seals. I don't particularly relish the idea myself, but they should be allowed to be free and eat and hunt what is proper for them. And looks wise, we are often mistaken for seals, especially by Great White Sharks.

Another wild animal case in point doing what comes natural, is Siegfried and Roy's tiger. Animals may put up with the degradation for awhile, but believe me they will retaliate to remind you just what they are. They are wild. Leave them in the wild. We need to appreciate that they are wild and can hurt us.