Again, nice job David.  It’s amazing to me how quickly the AR folks jumped on this tragic event in order to push their agenda.  I am wondering if they were so quick to get their “free the whales” message points out as a means to deflect the increasing amounts of negative publicity they are receiving because your your good work.

As part of the Veterinary News Network, I have to admit I was surprised when media started contacting us yesterday for message points.  Our membership is by in large small animal veterinarians.  Thankfully, some reporters in our group were able to use personal contacts so that we could get a set of logical, helpful, compassionate and educational message points about this tragic event. 

One thing that I learned that goes against HSUS’ whale expert is that since the 1990s, more than 40% of the massive animals are now born in captivity.  And, these animals are not equipped to survive in the wild.  Keiko, the star of Free Willy, died of pneumonia after an expensive and misguided attempt to reintroduce him into the wild.

I don’t want to hijack this blog with my own agenda, but I am willing to share our message points from the Veterinariay News Network if you would like links.  They are on our Facebook Fan page.

HSUS and other animal rights groups don’t have problems with whales killing seals because whales need to eat seals to survive. Humans for the most part don’t need to kill seals for their fur.  There’s a big difference there.

I wonder sometimes how it is that Americans spend upwards of $45 BILLION per year babying their pets, and yet so few of them grasp the concept that other animals have the same rich emotional lives that our dogs and cats do. What is so hard to believe about that?  Would you eat your dog?  Would you kill your cat for a nice fur coat?  It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Surely there’s some middle ground here.

Captive sea mammals are difficult to rehabilitate; you can’t just dump a poorly-socialized social animal back into its herd and expect it to have a good life. It doesn’t even know how to feed itself. It’s not like Free Willy.

On the other hand, if we’re going to keep animals in captivity so that humans can see them and so that they can be preserved and studied, isn’t it better (for education, for research, and for the welfare of the animals themselves) to let them live and behave naturally? There’s no reason for the circus shows and the jumping through hoops and the acrobatics with people in the water.

David,

Yes, whales can eat just about anything in the ocean - my point was that they need to eat other animals, like seals for example, for survival. Humans have no such need - we thrive on plant-based diets.  What’s more, whales don’t have the mental capacity (that we know of, I suppose) to make moral choices about what to eat. Humans do. You refrained from eating dog meat, presumably because it went against some ethic of yours.

I don’t think my choice to be vegan is based on an “emotional response”, as you suggest.  I think a lot of people like to belittle the choice to be vegan by writing it off as a purely emotional decision, when really for me it was a very logical step to take after I read the facts: even putting aside the horrible treatment of animals (something one might respond to emotionally), you have the fact that the bulk of crops grown in this country are fed to farmed animals. Those crops could instead be used to feed hungry people instead of feeding animals who need ridiculous amounts of feed to create just one pound of edible flesh.  Inefficient and illogical.  Factory farming is the number 1 cause of global warming in this country.  Isn’t it also logical to stop eating animals when doing so is ruining our planet?

On the cultural bias comment: obviously I realize our culture views dogs and cats differently than pigs, chickens, and cows.  What I’m saying is that if you really took a step back, you’d realize that there aren’t substantial enough differences to warrant the cuddling of one and the skinning of another.  Just because it’s part of a culture doesn’t make it ethical or right.  In China they believe that the more pain an animal feels while being killed, the better the meat will be - so they skin dogs and cats alive. You’d be hard pressed to find an American who thinks that’s okay (actually, I doubt many Americans would say skinning ANY animal alive is okay). But if it’s part of China’s culture, they view it as acceptable.  That doesn’t make it right, does it?  Sometimes we need to take a step outside our own cultures to look through a different lens - blindly doing what everyone else does just because everyone else does it doesn’t make it moral.

PS. I’m comfortable saying that some people’s values are indeed wrong. If it’s your value to kill toddlers for the heck of it, I’m not about to stand by and watch and say “well, that’s just his value! To each his own!”  Individual values are only okay when they don’t adversely impact others. That’s why we have laws about murder and rape and theft.  Eating animals, to me, falls into the category of “adversely impacting others” - both the animals who suffer, and for the reasons listed above (global warming, etc).

“There is about as much educational benefit to be gained in studying dolphins in captivity as there would be studying mankind by only observing prisoners held in solitary confinement.” - Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Whales in confinement suffer from disease and reduced lifespan despite the amount of medical care and observation these animals receive, dorsal fin collapse, and aggression towards humans and other orcas in captivity. How much sensitivity and knowledge does one obtain going to see a whale perform circus acts? How much did we learn about genetic diseases having ‘freaks’ in circus sideshows?

Oops ... forgot to add a link to an article in the Orlando Sentinel regarding the subject: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-big-animals-big-cages-20100226,0,632338.story

Maybe SOME humans thrive on plant based diets, but lots do not. I was vegan and it seriously compromised my health. My website is very popular with former vegans trying to heal from years of a diet completely inappropriate to humans. A great book about this is The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith.

To me, eating meat is part of our evolutionary heritage as a species. Keeping animals in captivity for no good reason is not. But I also believe it should be up to the consumer to shun these shows. When I was 10 and I was sent to “marine biology” camp at a marine park I realized what a mess these places were. I feel perfectly comfortable eating whale that lived a natural life in the wild, but very uncomfortable with these parks.

If anything, the fate of these animals is a good parable about our own species. The boredom and health problems they suffer parallel our own. We can and should do a better job providing humans and animals with evolutionarily appropriate food and environments.

I do wonder why every article’s post come down to whether or not its ok to eat animals? Or to keep them in captivity? I suppose that’s the basis of whole issue. But if that is true, then why even post separate articles? Why not simply have one long posting where people simply tell each other they are wrong and will never agree with each other or simply agree to disagree? Now I’m not asking the whole world to simply play nice and get along, but it’d be nice if people would become educated on the other side’s arguments.
For example it is clear that some people have never worked at a zoo or aquarium. Yes, sometimes the animals are bored. Have you ever been bored on your day off? Find yourself mindlessly watching TV, or wandering around your kitchen for the 10th time that day even though you aren’t hungry? Are you also aware that time management studies have been conducted on wild, captive and “semi-wild” populations of animals. (semi-wild meaning those animals that while technically wild have integrated themselves into our cities and society and generally live off our handouts and garbage). Captive and semi-wild animals spend the same portions of time eating, foraging, grooming and sleeping, they spend much more time grooming and sleeping than the wild populations. Why? Because they no longer need to find food, it is provided for them. So, why do animals in the zoo look bored? Because they don’t HAVE to find food. Just like we don’t HAVE to find food either.
And think of any animal show in zoo’s or aquariums like going to work yourself. Imagine living at home all the time, no kids, and you have a maid & a chef. Pretty boring right? But go to work 8 hrs a day and you start to enjoy the boring part. It stimulates them physically and mentally. Anymore, most animals are trained with a hands off positive reinforcement method that captures natural behaviors and rewards them. Most animals get really excited when its time for a show or to “work.” Please keep this in mind the next time you see animals in captivity or preforming.

No one ever said that mother nature wasn’t cruel..it is just that so many people have been removed from the real world.  Where animals and people starve and are killed and fight for survival.  I do not know where this “god complex” came from…we are NOT in control.

Mindy,

While I am not trying to start a fight with you on this, it shows you have never lived or worked on a farm. While I’m sure you think all the corn in the US can be eaten by humans only 22% of the corn grown in the United States in 2005 was edible. The rest is dent corn grown to sustain livestock, produce ethanol, and used as starter seed for next years crop.

I understand you saying that your vegan diet is your choice, but studies show that people who eat only veggie can suffer from the same problems people who meat. Also people who are vegan are more likely to be extremely under weight and anemic.

My last point is that my farm animals are enjoyed just like the dogs and cats. We eat them, because they outlive there usefulness. While Smokey and Libby can’t become glue, our horses can become more useful products to help people in the future.

I hope you can see this from a farm girl’s point of view.

Thanks

Oh Stephanie B, dear, this makes me laugh because you assume things about without knowing anything about me besides the fact that I am vegan. For your information, I GREW UP on a farm in the most rural part of rural North Dakota. I am well aware of how farms work, because I worked on my family’s farm from the time I was 9.  We had 2,000 acres of soybeans, corn, sunflowers, wheat and barley.  I plowed the fields in the spring, combined each harvest, and drove grain trucks to the elevators.  Most of what we grew was grown for livestock consumption (imagine how many more humans we could feed if that land were used for human-grade crops!).  I spent many hours on my friends’ cattle farms.  I watched calves being born, I watched them grow, and I watched them get shipped off to slaughter. My boyfriend’s family were pig farmers, and I saw how they had 1000 hogs in one big barn, each in small gestation crates or other pens that were too small for them. I heard how he and his dad would slam the runt piglets into the ground until they died if they knew they were too weak to survive.  I didn’t question it then because it was all I knew. I didn’t know how unnatural it is to keep such curious, intelligent, wonderful animals cooped up like that (and yes, I know all farms are not like that).  My point is that you shouldn’t assume I know nothing about farms - I know more than most people ever will.  And yes, I still choose to be vegan - isn’t that crazy!!!?? 

You say that your animals “outlive their usefulness”.  My fundamental belief is that no animal should have a “use” for humans, and therefore cannot “outlive their usefulness”.  You and I disagree, which is fine, but don’t assume I’ve chosen veganism blindly, and that I know nothing of farming.

Lastly - I hardly think America needs to worry too much about its population becoming underweight.  Obesity is a national epidemic.  Children today under the age of 15 are on track to live shorter, sicker lives than their parents because of weight-related illnesses.  Maybe a few more of them should consider a plant-based, healthy diet.

I don’t know how much time any of you have spent at SeaWorld, but as I live walking distance from it and have a Fun Card every year, I am there A LOT. I am also in the process of studying marine biology and animal psychology as my ultimate goal is to become an orca trainer. I don’t know if you have actually watched the body language of these animals, but you don’t get that much eagerness, happiness, and enthusiasm from unhappy animals. They play and engage in other activities just like a housebound dog or cat would.

Something I would like to point out is that PETA has said that the average captive orca’s lifespan is 9 years. Ulysses (SD) is in his late teens. Lolita (Miami Seaquarium) and Corky (SD) are in their 40’s. Kasatka, Orkid, and many others are all oder than 9 years old. Also, this article has hit the nail right on the head. Many people cannot afford to go see orcas in the wild. I am sure that many people would love to, yet they simply cannot. In order for people to care about an animal, they must feel somehow close and personally connected to the animal. SeaWorld does that on a daily basis with thousands of people.

Mindy, you say that no animal should have a “use” for humans. Then you will hate me as a person. I have 4 dogs. Two Smooth Collies and two Bluetick Coonhounds. Dude and Dartanian, my Collies, work my sheep for me every day. They are extremely useful. Buck and Yowler, my Blueticks, tree coons and cougars as well as chase off anything else that may threaten my sheep or my chickens. Mind you, I do not have the treed animals killed. They are relocated away from human populations so they can’t be labeled a threat to humans and therefore killed. Anyhow, these animals are used by human. That does not mean I do not love them. I love all 4 of them very dearly and will be very sad when their lives come to an end. In your eyes, no animal should be worked. No animal should have a use. This means that horses should not be ridden, dogs should not be used to detect drugs or bombs or aid the police or help the blind or handicapped. This also means that animals, including dogs and cats, should not be owned by humans as another “use” of my dogs is friendship and companionship.