Blackfish- Should the Killer Whales Be Kept in Captivity

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Imagine being taken from your mother at a young age…envision being thrown into a restricted room, no way out and scarcely enough room to move…visualize only being let out to perform preposterous tricks in front of a crowd of people who don’t understand the desolation you are forced to endure behind closed doors. This is what one-hundred and forty-one captive Orcas have had to face, and out of those one-hundred and forty-one Orcas, only sixteen are still alive to date. (WDC) Hm…seems like captivity isn’t the paramount decision when it comes to an Orcas welfare considering that their survival range utterly plummets from thirty to forty years in the wild to only four to twenty-eight years. (WDC) There are some who would argue and say that these captive Orcas wouldn’t be able to survive if released back into the wild…they wouldn’t know how to sustain their life, and would possibly die without ever making it anywhere. Orcas, in captivity, are likely to suffer multiple health problems, not only from disease, but from other Orcas whom they share their tanks with. Most Orcas are kept in chlorinated pools which causes their skin to become very dry, and irritable. (Blackfish) The tanks they are kept in have higher temperatures and barely enough room for the Orcas to swim which results in dorsal fin collapse. Thirty to one-hundred percent of captive, most being male, Orcas have dorsal fin collapse. (Blackfish) The tanks can also cause Orcas to become violent to one another. Kandu, an Orca from SeaWorld of California, rammed her tank mate Corky during a show; fracturing her own jaw in the process. Over the next forty-five minutes, Kandu bled to death, spurting blood from her blowhole as a horrified audience looked on. (Blackfish) Tilikum, a bull Orca from Seaworld Orlando, Florida, is constantly being bullied by his female tank mates who rake their sharp teeth on his already

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