Recently updated on October 5th, 2024 at 11:45 am
I am refusing to allow myself to add any commentary to this story. The Intercept is the best investigative journalism outfit around. They always dive deep and break shocking news stories. That being said, my attempt at self-control is in no way related to their reporting.
It’s about the content of this article. For over a decade I worked in veterinary medicine and have always loved animals. More than people, if I’m going to be honest. So I don’t want to comment knowing that it will become an out of control rant that takes the focus off of the real news here. That being said, here is the amazing Prem Thakker with the details on what’s happening at Seaquarium in Miami, Florida.
(Please click through to read the entire article on The Daily Beast website. I promote good work and if no one is visiting their site from here, it negates my purpose. Thanks. I appreciate you!😁)
Black mold growing in a penguin enclosure. Flamingos confined in a cage near stagnant, algal, murky water. A dolphin found with a nail in its throat, another with a broken bolt in its mouth. Animals forced to perform for onlookers, who — after paying $41.99 to ogle at captive sealife — walk away feeling “more sad than anything.” The facility is “falling apart,” one visitor writes in an online review. The animals are “horribly mistreated” and should be set free, writes another. The conditions are so squalid that federal investigators routinely cite the facility for violating federal law, and even Tripadvisor, the sprawling travel services website with global reach, won’t sell tickets “because it does not meet our animal welfare guidelines.”
Welcome to the Miami Seaquarium: one of the oldest oceanariums in the United States, and, increasingly, one of the most notorious. Several animals, including a famed orca whale, have died in its care in recent years, while it has been forced to relinquish custody of numerous other animals amid investigations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees compliance with the Animal Welfare Act, a federal law that regulates animal treatment in exhibition settings. Against that backdrop, the Seaquarium’s head veterinarian resigned this week — following the departures of three veterinary staffers who quit in protest in recent months — while an animal rights organization recently called for a local police investigation into allegations of animal cruelty at the facility.
Once a classic family outing or school field trip, aquariums, like zoos, have seen their public image collapse over the last decade or so. The 2013 film “Blackfish,” about an orca whale named Tilikum held in captivity at SeaWorld, was pivotal in turning public opinion. The film depicted how the extreme stress inflicted on orcas like Tilikum upon their capture — and subsequent lifetime of captivity and forced performances — cascades into staying trauma and aggression toward other marine animals and even humans. The production helped spur an increasing social awareness about “the physical and psychological suffering of marine mammals,” said Jared Goodman, PETA Foundation general counsel for animal law.
Since then, the public has more meaningfully confronted “just what [animals] have to endure to survive in marine parks,” Goodman said. “They’re not even thriving, it’s just what it takes to survive there. And the public was rightfully outraged about that.”
“We have to stop thinking that we are the only species that matters.”
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