In an article for the LA Times, Seaworld writes that they have choosen to end their Orca breeding program because peoples ''attitudes about Orcas have changed dramatically''.
In other words, People are now refusing to participate in the exploitation of animals such as Orcas, it's hurting them financially, and they are forced into changing their position on Orcas.
Seaworld is right, peoples attitudes towards places like Seaworld have changed. More and more people are starting to avoid places such as aquariums, zoos, circuses and other forms of so called animal 'entertainment'.
People are starting to wake up, they are starting to see that these 'entertainment' places are not fun, but a form of exploitation and abuse.
Things such as the internet and documentaries are opening peoples eyes, they are starting to become increasingly aware that when animals are used for 'entertainment' purposes they are often exploited and abused.
Seaworlds dramatic decline over a very short few years has been down to the documentary Blackfish. Blackfish highlights how animals like Orcas are often neglected, abused and isolated. It also shows how it is dangerous for people to work alongside these animals, wild animals will always be wild, and when they are abused and forced into psychological turmoil, its not hard to see why these animals often attack.
Seaworld claims that it is a place for 'educating' people about animals and 'conserving' animals, neither of these two things are true. Conservation is not about using animals for entertainment purposes, the aim of conservation is to save animals, so that they can live in their natural habitats. And, the only thing that Seaworld is educating people about animals, is in that it is educating people that animals should be used as forms of entertainment, that they should be forced into performing tricks for an audience.
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Let us not think that Seaworlds move is in anyway a movement for animal rights, or for the benefit of the animals which it holds, it's not.
Seaworlds move is for the purpose of its survival. Nothing more. But, Seaworlds attempts are in vein. Seaworld will not exist in ten years. Seaworld is finished. And it knows it. The sooner it closes its doors, the better.