PG-13, 83 min.
Director: Gabriela
Cowperthwaite
Writers: Gabriela
Cowperthwaite, Eli B. Depres
Featuring: Tilikum, Suzanne
Allee, Kim Ashdown, Samantha Berg, Dawn Brancheau, Daine Brancheau, Kelly
Clark, Dave Duffus, Dean Gomersall, John Hargrove, Nadine Kallen, Lori Marino,
Ken Peters, Estefania Rodriguez, Mark Simmons, Jeffrey Venture
My children will probably
never experience the joy of a SeaWorld show. I went to a couple as a kid and
even one in San Diego as an adult. My wife and I have discussed taking a trip
to the closest SeaWorld for the kids. However, for a long time now, I’ve been
aware of the questionable practices of these animal habitat places like
SeaWorld that specialize more in depriving the animals of their natural habitat
rather than preserving them in it. After watching the new documentary “Blackfish”,
I think the final nail has been hammered into that coffin.
The filmmakers have
interviewed several former animal trainers from SeaWorld and their consensus is
pretty unanimous, the treatment of the animals in the SeaWorld facilities is
deplorable. Most claim to have joined the SeaWorld staff at young ages, not
realizing that the people they were working for didn’t really know how to care
for these marine animals. They just assumed the people who ran the show knew
what they were talking about. After it became clear to these former employees
that there wasn’t much concern for the animals at a corporate level, most
stayed on to give the only care the animals really received.
Staying in the employ of
SeaWorld as an animal trainer, however, is a pretty risky endeavor. Several deaths and countless injuries have
occurred in SeaWorld parks over the last thirty years, almost always it’s one
of the trainers. One of the most highly publicized of these deaths was that of
Dawn Branchaeu, a veteran trainer who knew very well what she was doing with
the whale that killed her in 2010. A male killer whale named Tilikum, the
largest Orca in captivity who had been involved with two previous deaths,
killed her. At the time of her death SeaWorld downplayed much of her injuries
and subtly placed the blame on the trainer, claiming the whale grabbed her pony
tale and accidentally dragger her in. This was not the case.
“Blackfish” concentrates on
many different aspects of killer whales and SeaWorld’s history with them, from
the early hunting of killer whale babies to the brutal nature with which the
whales treat each other in captivity. Pointing out several different incidents
throughout SeaWorld’s history, the filmmakers concentrate primarily on their
history with Tilikum specifically. Tilikum was responsible for the death of a
trainer before SeaWorld bought the whale from the small outfit Sealand of the
Pacific in South Oak Bay, British Columbia. They ignored eyewitness accounts of
the incident and put Tilikum on display in their Orlando park.
The movie points out that
their relationship with Tilikum supports the notion that their practices are
more about the corporate bottom line than the safety of the animals or their
trainers. Through archival footage the filmmakers display an abundance of
visual proof that his fellow whale performers frequently abused Tilikum. They
also point out that Tilikum was the foundation of the company’s breeding program,
having produced over twenty offspring in their whale stock.
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