California Bans SeaWorld From Breeding Captive Orcas

Following a Long Beach, CA hearing of more than 600 people, both in support and against SeaWorld, the state government has decided to ban the sale, trade and transfer of all captive whales as well as forbidding the company to breed them.

This means that the 11 remaining captive whales will be the last in the state of California.

Since the release of the 2013 documentary, Blackfish, that exposed the torturous conditions imposed on these huge sea mammals, public outcry has lead to profits falling in the organization.  Blackfish follows the life and imprisonment of one of SeaWorld's most widely known orcas, Tilikum, and how he snapped under the psychological pressure of life in a cage.  He is currently being held in Orlando, FL.

Here's the trailer

 

California state authorized a new, $100 million tank to be built at the SeaWorld San Diego, but decided that it will be not be used for breeding after the council met.

PETA spokesperson Ben Williamson explained that “SeaWorld has admitted that it intended to breed even more orcas to fill the new tanks, but the commission's action today ensures that no more orcas will be condemned to a nonlife of loneliness, deprivation and misery. SeaWorld is a sea circus, and the orcas are its abused elephants.”

SeaWorld publicly stated that "breeding is a natural, fundamental and important part of an animal’s life and depriving a social animal of the right to reproduce is inhumane."  The reality, though, is that forcing an animal to breed is very different than allowing it the right to breed.

 

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/california-ban-seaworld-breeding-captive-orca