Former 'Flipper' trainer says animal parks such as SeaWorld provide a 'bad education' to visitors

In wake of the tragedy at SeaWorld in Orlando, our colleague Steve Lopez wondered if he had been a bad father by taking his daughter to the marine animal park in San Diego. "Did I really want her to think that wild animals exist for our amusement," Lopez pondered in his column Wednesday morning, "or that it's OK to ride a killer whale as if it were a pony?"

So Lopez asked a few experts, namely, his marine biologist cousin, San Diego SeaWorld spokesman Dave Koontz and Ric O'Barry, a dolphin expert who is also one of the first animal trainers to work with killer whales in a show.

Although Koontz told Lopez that visitors to marine animal parks receive "a greater appreciation for these animals and the ocean environments they live in," O'Barry, who can be seen in the Oscar-nominated documentary "The Cove" disagrees, calling it a "bad education."

"There's no connection between conservation and stupid dolphin tricks," O'Barry told Lopez.

Not only that, but O'Barry claims that because big mammals such as orcas and dolphins have no privacy in environments like SeaWorld, they can often do violent things, sometimes to others, as we have seen with Tilikum, or sometimes to themselves. O'Barry, who as a young man captured and trained dolphins for the classic TV show "Flipper," believes that one of the dolphins committed suicide by refusing to come up for air.

-- Tony Pierce

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Photo: Ric O'Barry looks at dolphins in a tank at the Whales Museum during a 2009 trip to Taiji, Japan. Credit: Junji Kurokawa / Associated Press

Comments

[Hart]

Confinement is abuse. Animal liberation now.

[Rahime Benina Jarvis-vanZelst]

i think that there should be no sea world. if you hold animals captive they will behave bad like what just happened a couple of weeks ago that was trgiic so if you want more people to get hurt go ahead but you should set the animals FREE!!!!! i would be much happyer to see animals free and wild than sad and cept in a cell.

P.S would you like to be cept in a cell or would you want to be

sencerly

Rahime and her dad

[Tre' Friday III]

The animals at Seaworld are given the best of care. They are given everything anyone every wants or needs, free health care, free food, free toys, a safe living enviornment, and the animals live amongest their families and friends.

Ric O'Barry has admitted that when he trained dolphins, he trained them by showing his dominance over them, which is the nice way of saying he abused them. I believe one of O'Barry's animals did kill themselves, becuase they were being abused. O'Barry is stuck in the times of when he trained dolphins neglecting to realize that times and methods have changed since his time as a dolphin trainer. SeaWorld trains all of their animals using Positive Reinforcement. SeaWorld trainers before working with the animals must develop strong relationships and a strong bond with their animals.

Ric O'Barry is proof that these animals can not be set free and he should know based on his experience that its not that easy. Ric O'Barry was fined because he tried to release 2 dolphins who later died. These animals have become accustomed to their homes at SeaWorld.

People need to stop giving human thoughts to animals and before calling an animal a monster get the full facts. Tillikum is an animal who gets freaked out, the panic of trainers could've caused this animal to freak out even more, leading to the death of the trainer. Just because people think the animals would be upset in captivity doesn't mean they are. Like I said before, the animals at SeaWorld are given the best of care and are very active. If animals are not happy they will not reproduce, SeaWorld has had over 2o whales born into their care.

The fact of the matter is, without places like SeaWorld several children and adults would not have the ability to view these wonderful animals. Not everyone can go whale watching and not every time you go whale watching you see an animal. At place like SeaWorld people can have an up close and personal encounter with animals, that someone may only be able to see through a pair of binoculars in the wild.

The wild is more dangerous than captivity is for these animals. Overfishing leaves several whales hungry, just last year people were wondering where had the whales gone? When they did not come to normal fishing grounds. Whales have to deal with being shot for sport or because the animals are eating the food whalers are trying to hunt.

Keep these whales where they have been for years, either in the wild or at SeaWorld. Keep captive animals captive, where they can continue their lives, and keep wild whales wild where they can continue to do as the please. But just don't because an animal is wild, doesn't mean it is happy, they face hardships too. If the wild orca population begins to deminsh places like SeaWorld, will be the saviors to their species because of their care and successful breeding programs.

[Rich]

Most people wouldn't care at all about whales and dolphins if it weren't for these shows, which have been going on since 1938 (founding of Marineland of Florida)!! O'Barry is well intentioned, but wrong. Before these parks changed public opinion, people hated, demonized, and slaughtered whales. Think "Moby Dick."

[L.A. Voter]

Tre -- you miss the point that Tilikum was born free, then captured.

You also miss the point that if you were given the best food, the best healthcare, and shiny new toys and you could enjoy it all in the comfort of a space the size of a typical bathroom -- for the rest of your life -- you would go crazy too.

Furthermore, you miss the point that no one who thinks Tilikum's actions are the direct result of his being captured from the wild and imprisoned for life because he's a jim-dandy breeder of very profitable baby orcas would ever think of calling him a monster. In fact, I don't think anyone's called him a monster; that's your invented straw man. We feel very badly for the three humans who died as a result of contact with him, but what we're saying is you can't imprison a very intelligent, multi-ton animal for his entire life and get a good result.

Finally, your other straw man argument that without SeaWorld we would (for some reason) view dolphins and orcas as Moby Dick(?) makes zero sense. If SeaWorld folded tomorrow it's not like we would go back in time. We know dolphins and orcas aren't monsters. But we've also learned that there is no humane way to confine animals whose lives are predicated on migration and being able to roam over many miles. Saying we can provide a humane and satisfying level of stimulation for an adult orca for his entire life is like saying if we gave you a big enough flat screen TV, with every channel ever created, it would be humane to strap you to a gurney until you die.

I'm guessing you wouldn't take that offer even if we threw in all the free fish you could eat.

[ArtsAlive]

Oh, God, I'm so sick and tired of these zoo/aquaria automatons who trot out their same old tired excuses for continuing to put on these freak shows for big money.

Orcas belong in the open seas where they swim up to 100 miles per day. They are one of the great ocean predators. They don't belong in a chlorinated swimming pool which is like putting them in a box with water. They don't belong at Sea World doing stupid tricks for people. When they're put in these pools, they have to stop using their sonar because it bounces off the walls of their tank driving them crazy. Swimming in circles every day causes their dorsal fins to collapse and curve over severely. These people think that they can somehow domesticate these wild creatures by training. They can't. Tilly killed his trainer and knew exactly what he was doing. He was displaying normal orca hunting behavior.

It's past time to stop these cruel aquatic dog and pony shows. These theme parks should be required by law to pool their considerable resources and build a HUGE facility to rehabilitate these animals in gigantic cold sea water pens, no shows and with the goal of possible eventual release to the wild. The least these serial exploiters can do is return some quality of life to these long suffering prisoners. With the tragic death of Dawn Brancheau, this incredible exploitation must end here and now.

[Parry]

I don't know how to break it to you,Rich, but you don't know every darn thing. Ric O'Barry knows a lot more about these creatures than you do. For one thing, he knows that orcas are not "whales." They are members of the dolphin family. You need to educate yourself, Rich.

There is no redeeming "educational" value in these ridiculous shows. The orcas die decades before their time in these tanks, they go insane from being kept like this. No wonder Tilicum struck out. It's time to stop this insanity.

[Roanna Ossege]

One poster says that Sea World gives them all they could want.....Freedom is what wild things want. We should let the wild things live their wild life. It is a shameful time in our history. Deep down we know it is wrong to confine these majestic creatures yet we don't want to admit our sins and change our ways. I hope someday this all changes and zoo's and other animal displays are closed forever.

[Ankhorite]

Parry said on March 7: " For one thing, he knows that orcas are not "whales." They are members of the dolphin family. You need to educate yourself, Rich."

@Parry: orcas and dolphins ARE whales.

I can correct your error of fact, but you'll have to correct your manners yourself. :)