Why Orcas And Dolphins Should Not Be Kept In Captivity

The topic I chose for this paper is that I believe that cetaceans should not be kept in captivity. The call for anti-captivity in the past has been sparked by the movie Free Willy and made people aware that creatures like orcas and dolphins should not be held in captivity. Cetaceans are very intelligent, and, in this paper, I will expand on the various reasons why keeping them in captivity should be outlawed.

A couple of inspirations for the topic came from the deliberation cases, one being the “Nonhuman Persons” case and the other is “Pet Owners Who Eat Meat”. Both cases were interesting because they go into how some of us view animals and the meanings, we give them. It got me thinking about my views on animals and how I feel about them. In the past I have never felt very strongly about animals. I have seen videos about the massive ranches of cows that are solely bred for our consumption and it made me feel bad but not so much that I became a vegetarian. What I felt the most upset about was when I hear of endangered animals being killed. An infraorder of animals that I feel need to be protected and kept out of captivity are cetaceans. The question I will focus on is why should cetaceans not be held captive?

One member of the cetacean infraorder are dolphins. It is common knowledge that dolphins are extremely intelligent animals and are unfortunately kept in zoos and waterparks around the world. Not only are they intelligent, they are self-aware. There was a study conducted using mirrors showing that dolphins display signs of self-recognition earlier than humans. The article says, “humans first show self-directed behavior at a mirror between 12 and 15 months” but dolphins show the same behavior at 7 months. Clearly, dolphins are extremely smart creatures, but we keep them in parks for our enjoyment. At Marineland in Canada, 22 dolphins have died in their care. There are plenty of animals that are in captivity, but the level of intelligence is what makes the difference when it comes to animals like dolphins and orcas. With a turtle, it does not matter where it is, they just need some water, food and a rock to rest on whether that is in the wild or in a zoo. But animals like dolphins and orcas are different in my opinion because they know what is going on around them. They are very social creatures that need to be in the open waters to swim with their pods and hunt prey utilizing teamwork like orcas who have strategies for separating a baby whale from its parent.

There is only so much a zoo can do to stimulate a dolphin, and not just dolphins but other animals. They do simulations of ‘hunting’ but that is just hiding a piece of food in a corner of their enclosure. I read that a dolphin can travel up to 80 miles in a day. I could not imagine how mundane that would be to swim in circles for years of my life to only reach the other side of the tank every single time. I think that feeding dolphins is even worse than other animals because they are used for tricks so after the successfully completed one the trainer will give them a fish as a reward. Where in the wild do dolphins receive a reward? They get so used to opening their mouth and a fish dropping inside that they lose their ability to hunt. In a book I saw the author mentions that Keiko the orca from Free Willy was release back into the wild after four years of being re-conditioned. Unfortunately, he died two months later because he looked for humans to take care of him and died of pneumonia (Gruen, 134-135).

I find this to be unethical not just for dolphins, but predators held in captivity. They are taken from the wild at a young age and lost the to hunt meaning that they now cannot leave captivity unless they do a program to re-teach them how to hunt but that does not always work. Unlike say, a deer in a zoo; they do not require the skill to hunt. One may say that because a deer has always lived in an enclosure, they may lose their sense of awareness leaving them liable to becoming prey. But same with us, when it comes to a life and death situation, we have the fight or flight instinct. Same with a deer, if they fear for their life, they will run to eat grass another day. But predators like dolphins need the open water to catch fish and survive for themselves. How do you expect them to be reintroduced into the wild if they are being hand fed?

Rita Stacey, the curator of marine mammals at Brookfield Zoo claims that the dolphins are thriving in their care and if they are healthy then they are in good welfare. But what about mental health of the dolphins like stress? Visual evidence of that is the dorsal fins of cetaceans. The collapse of dorsal fins happens to cetaceans that are held in captivity because the lack of room for them to roam around. Like I mentioned earlier, a dolphin can 80 miles but how many do they swim in a tank? The lack of room available to them is clearly not enough and because of that the dorsal fin collapses because the fin is not utilized. Lack of room is not the only contributor, another reason why people think the fin collapses is because of stress, temperature of air and water, and other reasons like age and low blood pressure (Kennedy, 2019). There are plenty of theories and studies but all of them have one common factor and that is they are held in captivity. Although they may be physically healthy the cetaceans may not necessarily be happy about swimming in a circle for years of their life.

Another concern about mental health is the behavioral problems that have occurred. To my surprise there have been many attacks by orcas in captivity. The most infamous case was the orca Tilikum who killed his trainer Dawn Brancheau by drowning her. He has been linked with three deaths and moved around different parks for mating programs. He was also taken at the age of thee from the wild then lived over 30 years in captivity. After going through that for years I’m sure the stress built up and as a result, he took several lives. Tilikum also had a son, Ikaika who was born in captivity and bit the thigh of a trainer and was aggressive towards a female orca who was his tank mate (Casey, 2011). It is becoming clear that keeping cetaceans in captivity is something that should be stopped.

But these sad events that cetaceans have been succumbed to do not seem to matter to Lance Miller who is the vice president of conservation science and animal welfare research said, “my guess is that our dolphins are doing much better”. He also said, “they don’t have to deal with thinks like red tide, they don’t have to deal with boat traffic, they don’t have to deal with predators, they have amazing food sources” (Lourgos, 2019). These two quotes bother me because they seem like words of a person who does not know what is going on. The first quote says that he guesses, a person with his title should be one of the last people who should be guessing when he has access to what should be actual research. The second quote says that they don’t have to deal with various things in the wild. Every animal must deal with hardships in the wild, it goes back to the theory of natural selection. Why should we intervene in the lives of dolphins just because we think we can provide them with a better life? It clearly is not working when we have plenty of evidence that life captivity is not better or maybe worse compared to their life in the wild.

Canada has realized this and has banned keeping cetaceans in captivity. Legislation passed the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins act making the act capturing cetaceans a punishable offence. It has been in the works since 2015 had finally passed in June this summer (senate public bill). This is a major accomplishment for animal activists because for years they have been working to end the practice of keeping cetaceans in captivity. But this act only prevents future captivity. Current cetaceans will remain in captivity and probably remain there since they cannot be replaced anymore. But this is probably for the best because as I mentioned, they lose their sense of being in the wild and rely too much on humans to survive when re-introduced back into the wild.

In conclusion, animal captivity has been around for years and people are starting to realize that these practices of keeping cetacean’s captive must cease to exist. We have seen progress in Canada, and I feel that is the way forward that the United States must go as well. We have taken strides towards banning captivity by passing a law that bans using orcas for entertainment. If we keep on the pressure, I think we will be able to ban the captivity of cetaceans all together in the future.

Work Cited

1. Good, Kate. “EXPOSED! Marineland Canada, a Living Nightmare for Whales and Dolphins.” One Green Planet, One Green Planet, 19 Nov. 2014, www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/exposed-marineland-canada-a-living-nightmare-for-whales-and-dolphins/.
2. Gruen, Lori. Ethics and Animals : An Introduction. Cambridge University Press, 2011. https://nvclibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/705009277 -URL. Accessed 18 Aug. 2019.
3. “SeaWorld Orca Tilikum That Killed Trainer Dies.” BBC News, BBC, 6 Jan. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38531967.
4. Lourgos, Angie Leventis. “Are Dolphins in Captivity Emotionally and Physically Healthy? Brookfield Zoo Researchers Hope to Find Out.” Chicagotribune.com, 4 Mar. 2019, www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-zoo-dolphin-welfare-study-20190201-story.html.
5. Gilby, Kelly. “Dolphin Q&A.” Welcome to The Dolphin Place - FAQ about Dolphins and Whales, thedolphinplace.com/QandA.html#10.
6. Casey, Liam. “Send Killer Whale Back to Florida, Court Tells Marineland.” Thestar.com, 28 Sept. 2011, www.thestar.com/news/gta/2011/09/28/send_killer_whale_back_to_florida_court_tells_marineland.html.
7. Staff, Science X. “Dolphins Beat Humans, Chimps at Early Signs of Self-Awareness.” Phys.org, Phys.org, 10 Jan. 2018, phys.org/news/2018-01-dolphins-humans-chimps-early-self-awareness.html.
8. Kennedy, Jennifer. “What Causes a Killer Whale's Dorsal Fin to Collapse?” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 22 June 2019, www.thoughtco.com/killer-whale-dorsal-fin-collapse-2291880.
9. “The Orca Welfare and Safety Act in California.” Animal Welfare Institute, awionline.org/archived-action-ealerts/orca-welfare-and-safety-act-california.
10. LEGISinfo - Senate Public Bill S-203 (42-1), www.parl.ca/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&billId=8063284&View=5.