Enough. We have to stop owning wild animals.

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.  Yours is quite an unusual exposure and upbringing. I'm late to these realizations, but no less concerned about it. I was apalled that Sea World resumed their shows immediately. 

I share your thoughts on this issue. I have not gone to zoo's for the reasons you touched on. When I was a child we were surrounded by wild birds and animals because my sister was the founder of a wildlife rescue association. (It still runs 30+ years later) When she had to bring something home from the centre we were to understand this was rehabilitation not a new pet.

Animals in captivity especially for entertainment is wrong. That killer whale was released from our zoo aquarium after killing two people. One trainer, one person with mental health issues who decided to go into the water. I have written on my blog Esteem Rising ( http://jenniferchandler.com/uncategorized/dolphin-... ) about my anger towards the zoo, captive dolphins and the killing of wildlife that happen to come into contact with the public. The public, who for the most part, bought property in rich wildlife habitats or wander through parks. They build up mountains here and don't understand even bears and deer have limits as to how far up the mountains they can go, everything has a range. Except us, we populate everywhere.

The argument for zoo's is that they allow people to see these creatures and understand more about them, its instructional. Well, I haven't seen the pyramids up close but that hasn't stopped me from understanding where they came from. In fact, there are many things in life I may never see up close but researching is purely at my disposal any day of the week.

We are not seeing the killer whales, dolphins, bears, birds or anything else in its natural habitat by going to a zoo or touching them in fenced in areas; it is cruel to have them live out their life in such a way. It is a business and big money trades all over this world to have these animals in our cities.

Protecting endangered species is key, rehabilitation is important but having anything on show just because "we" want to see them up close shows how incredibly selfish and ignorant humans can be.

Thanks for the post, it got my passion up again for the issue which is a good thing :)

Today, shows continued at Sea World with their big concession being that the trainers will no longer get in the water with the whales.  I don't see how that helps the whales. 

I think it is horrible that we keep animals in captivity just for people's enjoyment. I'm all for shutting down zoo's and places like sea world. Makes me so angry to hear about how these poor animals are treated and I can't believe people are surprised when things like this happen. People are so ignorant and just wrong it makes me sick. This world we live in is an ugly place.

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm following the statements from people who really know animal behavior.  They say it so much better (with research) than I ever could, but the more information I absorb, the more strongly I feel.  It seems so arrogant for humans to take a giant like that whale and make him perform.  Today I heard more details about how those giants were trained and it's not pretty.   

I spent a long time today thinking about similar things, and came to the same conclusion.  There are other stories like the Sea World one - Siegfried & Roy I guess being one of the most famous.  At the very least I think it's time for wild animal performances to stop, though I could be convinced to keep natural habitat zoos.

BigCityMom

http://BigCityMom.blogspot.com