BaroqueAgain1 wrote:I differentiate between 'aquariums' (like Monterey Bay's) and Sea World.
I believe the abuses by Sea World have been well-documented, and not merely by PETA.
The world has changed, and we no longer think it's OK to put lions and tigers in little steel cages, restrain calves in 'veal' crates, put laying hens in cages so small they can't turn around, or condone puppy mills with neglected dogs crammed into tiny wire cages.
Cetaceans are intelligent, social animals for whom the whole OCEAN is their natural habitat. Putting them in glorified concrete swimming pools is kind of like putting us in an 8X12 cell with no windows.
And then there's the drugging; the forced AI pregnancies, sometimes of females that are too young; the repeated pregnancies spaced too close for health; the forced separation of calves from their mothers, much earlier than they would have in the wild; and the entertainment-motivated tricks taught to make money for the parks.
The American Sea Worlds are supposed to stop the breeding and also stop having the orcas perform tricks but, everywhere else in the world, life for captured cetaceans is pretty awful. And even if Sea World stops perpetrating the breeding and circus shows, that still doesn't solve the issue of large, far-ranging, social animals locked into concrete pools far too small for them.
This is kind of case in point... but in any event, many people make no distinction between Sea World and other aquaria.