SeaWorld: Friendly Park, or Deadly Prison



Animal captivity acts as a great way for people to see and enjoy wild animals. However it transforms helpless, harmless animals into aggressive, agitated monsters. Wild animals should not be kept in captivity- especially not at SeaWorld Parks. Animals in captivity are deprived of their family, lives, freedom, and this leads to them becoming very aggressive.





Everyone thinks that SeaWorld is just a friendly marina and a great place to take your kids and family to see wild animals up close and to amazing shows. But this is dead wrong. SeaWorld isn’t a friendly marina. In fact, it is a prison for animals. For starters, captive marine animals are robbed of everything that is natural to them and part of their lives, such as living in a family pod, swimming up to 100 miles each day and diving up to 500 feet in the ocean; something they most defiantly cannot do in their small enclosures. Also, SeaWorld lowers animals’ life spans- Orcas live an average of 30 to 50 years in the wild, some even live to be 90. However, the average age for Orcas in captivity is 9 years. Being in captivity stresses these animals and weakens their immune systems, leading to their lower lifespan.





To add to the fact that these animals are stressed, the enclosures at SeaWorld are very unsanitary. To prove this the USDA states that these parks violate several parts of the Animal Welfare Act and Dolphin and Orca tanks are in horrible condition. To illustrate this fact, the sides of the tanks are cracked, concrete is crumbling off the sides of the tanks, and the beams are rusty. These problems all pose a threat not only to the animals, but also to their trainers. And if these facts don’t catch your attention, maybe this will- a few years ago a dolphin at the SeaWorld in San Antonio was missing a chunk of flesh from her lower mandible (the jaw and jaw bone); this wasn’t the only incident like this. There was an extremely similar injury to the one received, by an Orca named Nakai, at the San Diego SeaWorld from a piece of equipment that holds the gates that separate two tanks from each other. These injuries clearly demonstrated a violation of the Animal Welfare Act, which states that facilities must be structurally safe and free of objects or edges that can cause injury.





Furthermore, the employees that work at SeaWorld don’t even care about the animals held in captivity there. In fact, once a visitor at a SeaWorld park reported seeing a dead shark laying belly-up in its tank to one of the employees, who in return did nothing about it. To back this up is Nakai’s injury. She is an Orca who got a large gash in her mandible during one of the evening shows at the San Diego SeaWorld. Trainers in that show saw when she got the injury, and how bad it was. However, instead of stopping the show and taking the Orca to be examined and her injury looked at, they kept the show going, with Nakai performing in it.





Through and through, these marine animals are put through a lot and they become stressed, upset, frustrated, agitated, and eventually crack. Because of everything SeaWorld and its trainers put these animals through; they get very aggressive and have sudden violent behaviors. For example, the same Orca has killed three of its trainers, the most recent one in 2010 when she drowned her trainer after a show. Besides all of the deaths the animals begin to attack each other and the people who come to see them. For instance, two small children were attacked by dolphins at two separate SeaWorld locations in a short time period of three weeks. These deaths and attacks are just some of the many that have occurred at SeaWorld.







Countless people want SeaWorld to stay open and continue running things the way they are. Many are against this because they don’t believe the things said about SeaWorld. These people are wrong though because they don’t know the facts behind the unsanitary tanks, how animals are treated, and what it does to them. However, if more people learned about animal captivity’s effects on animals and how SeaWorld treats them, maybe they would join those of us who want SeaWorld to be shutdown.



Families all around the world should stop going to, and supporting SeaWorld. Many people, worldwide, love to take trips to SeaWorld to see wild animals perform tricks and entertain them. But in order for the park to get these animals to behave this way they rob the animals of their freedom and lives. The animals are abused and placed into unsanitary enclosures that are not safe. They don’t see sunlight for over 14 hours a day. By doing this to the animals, they are turned into angry monsters. Over three trainers have been killed by SeaWorld’s animals and multiple visitors have been attacked. Everyone needs to realize what this park is doing to their animals and their employees. Also, people should look into the attacks happening at SeaWorld and no longer go there so we can put a stop to the animals’ misery. By going to SeaWorld you continue to allow these people to treat the animals the way they are today. Instead of visiting these parks take a cruise or trip to see these wild animals in their natural habitat.







Works Cited

Kretzer, Michelle. “The Peta Files.” 11 Dec. 2012. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.



Mackey, Jeff. “The Peta Files.” 5 Mar. 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.








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