Jessica DeLosh English 101-006 Mrs. Alderfer April 27, 2015 Rhetorical Essay Orcas: Captive Beauties The film, Blackfish is a documentary based on the true factual information about the effects on orcas while in captivity. The film reveals SeaWorld’s behind the scenes of what actual goes on at everyone’s favorite amusement park. As the documentary goes on, more is revealed about the emotional and physical pain the orcas endure. The film Blackfish effectively convinces the audience that orcas should not be held in captivity because of the evidence discrediting SeaWorld. The use of 911 calls and personal testimony about capturing whales help reveal emotional appeals.
With the widespread criticism of zoological institutions such as SeaWorld by documentary makers, as seen in “Blackfish” it is important for people to realize that propositions expressed in such media are not always based on fact and or are justifiable. The only way to correctly describe “Blackfish” is to describe it as an over-zealous attempt to cut off the research and care of Orcas in captivity. ! ! Recently, SeaWorld has come under fire for keeping animals in captivity, and in particular it’s Killer Whales (Orcas).
Living in captivity not only affects their physical health but their mental health as well. There have been multiple incidents where captive orcas have attacked their trainers, but not once has there ever been an orca who has attacked a human being in the wild. Captivity negatively affects the natural social structures of orcas and affects their mental and physical well being tremendously. By humans trying to contain what they cannot control, the animals are being put at risk. Predominantly, orcas have an enlarged lobe adjacent to their limbic system, the system that processes emotions, which makes them more capable of emotional depth.
Rick O’Barry stated in the film The Cove, “Japanese people treat dolphins like American Cows, we eat cows, while they eat dolphin, yet dolphin are a part of the whale family and will become extinct very soon if the Japanese continue with this slaughter in Taiji, Japan.” There are a variety of cultural differences throughout the world and many traditions that have been passed from generation to generation. In many countries and cities, religious traditions are practiced; worship is praised and objects are sanctified. This is very different for the Japanese culture. For Japan, a dolphin is the traditional source of meat for their society to eat. Little do the citizens of Japan know the damages and dangers dolphin meat can do to the human brain.
Dolphins usually hunt during the day. However, when fish begin migrating, fish automatically become their prey to dolphins. Dolphins also search for squid which are active at night. The predators are some big shark species as like tiger shark, dusky shark, great white shark, and the bull shark. The dolphin can defend its self but with the skills of the shark, it’s not rare for the dolphin to fail.
These lion fish prey on all different types of animals, such as: crabs, shrimp and smaller fish; and have very little amount predators giving them the place in the higher levels of the food chain. Since it is so high in the food chain and preys on almost anything, it has managed to survive in the Atlantic Ocean perfectly. In the Atlantic, lion fish are defined as invasive species, which means, "a non-native organism that has intruded into an area and may have serious detrimental effects on native organisms, the local economy, and human health". sadly many accidents have led to the invasion where the lion fish has spread all across the Caribbean Sea and up North in places like Rhode Island. It is hypothesized that the origin of the whole problem came from only six lion fish that were accidentally released from an aquarium to the Atlantic Ocean in 1992 during hurricane Andrew.
Founding members of Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are groups of people that do not understand the origin of rodeo and its sensitivity to animal welfare issues. When something is not understood, it is commonly misconstrued. Rodeo is being protested against because the people of PETA and SHARK play on readers emotions. Emotions, especially “blind” ones, are strong enough to cause people to take action against organizations or activities about which they have no background information. If more people did not rely so much on emotions and relied more on intelligence, then problems like this would not arise.
Hunters are now encouraged to kill the great whites to support the widely popular shark-fin industry in Asia as well as to report back to the American beaches that they will be free from shark attacks. (D, 4) While great white sharks have an evil reputation that has lead to over-hunting and a spot on the endangered species list, scientists now have a goal to undo the superficial anthropomorphism that human beings have created in order to save the species. People often superficially anthropomorphize animals, inclined to interpret an animal’s behavior or temperament on the basis of surface qualities that are unrelated to those that actually regulate it. (Lockwood, 43) Humans most commonly have given sharks a negative meaning because of their daunting physical features and the unlikely event when they attack humans. Through movies
Muckraking is the act of publicizing indecent information in hopes to raise awareness, and as a muckraker himself, Psihoyos demonstrates a successful argument and position against the dolphin killing in Taiji. The document, itself, is a definition of muckraking, as it is heavily “depended on facts” (Bausum). One of the many reasons Psihoyos’ documentary is considered a successful argument and a voice that projects is because he has “thought a great deal about who [he] was writing for” (Faigley and Selzer). He is well aware that his audience is not as conversant about the dolphin slaughter at the cove in Taiji; therefore, evidence and statistics are provided for the viewers and consumers in Japan. As a muckraker who intends to bring the brutal killing of dolphins to an end, he presents his ethos with the knowledge and research he embraces in order to educate his audience about the negative and forbidding truth about the slaughter.
Vivi-section violates animal freedom. And since animals cannot volunteer themselves, they are chosen for scientific purposes with no voice in the matter whatsoever. If us humans go swimming we have to sign waivers but these poor animals are being signed up for torture, which will lead to their inevitable death with no say in the matter. Vivi-section is used for scientific purposes, for finding cures that benefit the human population, sure a few animals will be saved using these cures but in the end it’s the human population that benefits more from the deaths of these helpless animals.