foreverorkid28

[foreverorkid28]

I’m shook over Shouka. 😌

[foreverorkid28]

Zoos are not animal sanctuaries. When it comes to zoos, research and rehabilitation will always be secondary to entertainment and money. The primary purpose of a zoo is to make money off of the capture of animals, that is a direct incentive against true rehabilitation. As long as a human stands to make money off of it, it incentivizes exploitation and will always leave the person with a blind spot to ethical violations even if they think their practices are perfect.

[foreverorkid28]

Definitely a fan of these two ❤️ Miss Caliban is so pretty 

Caliban (mother) & Cooper (calf)

Atlantic bottlenose dolphin and calf

Dolphin Quest, Bermuda

2011

http://www.flickr.com/people/lindsey-p/ 

[foreverorkid28]

Between the SeaWorld and Loro Parques orca care I see NO difference. Loro Parque is so underrated in the community. Morgan does just as fine at LP as she would have done at SeaWorld. But of course she seemingly would not listen to any reason (after I, marinelandjoy, begged to differ..)

Can people, for once, ESPECIALLY IN THE PROCAP COMMUNITY, not be hypocritical about Loro Parque.

Loro Parque in general is by far better than SeaWorld. They do way more for conservation, are leaders in parrot conservation. Their care of orcas has been under the guide of SeaWorld. Five out of six continue to be under SeaWorld’s responsibility. SeaWorld is just as much to blame for LP’s care of orcas, since they guided and trained the trainers.

[foreverorkid28]

Kiska & Nootka 5 💙 (Since just one Kiska pic just is never enough lol and Nootka is perfection)

PC : Toronto Sun and Sherie Hurdle via Orca Home 

[foreverorkid28]

Haven't posted in 2 weeks whoops 👏🏻 Yes. Yes I'm alive and well {so here's Kiska}

[foreverorkid28]

Un-dam The Snake River!

The Southern Residents are in dire need of our help; with J-14 Samish missing and the life of J-28 Polaris and her calf J-54 hanging by a thread, these whales need our help immediately or we may lose them.

Contact Lawmakers! Let them know why destroying the four lower Snake River dams is imperitive to the survival of the Southern Residents.

Also, sign the petitions here, and visit these other sites to find out about more ways you can help. If anyone has any other links or ways to help, please feel free to add them!

[foreverorkid28]

Today marks 7 years since Sumars passing 💙 Miss ya buddy. 

PC: Ed Overmars (1) & Liam Kotteberg (2) via OrcaHome

[foreverorkid28]

Breaking down Blackfish: Part 1 - Was It Balanced?

It seems like the first thing a person will do when talking about cetacean captivity is mention Blackfish. Released in 2013 and directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the film sparked momentum against SeaWorld and killer whales in captivity and it’s impact is still being felt today.

Since the documentary came out up until the end of last year I was wholeheartedly anti-captivity and believed that everything in it was true. I also tried to convince myself it was a “balanced” documentary. It’s only when I started doing some digging and working on my own research into cetacean captivity that I realised that the picture Blackfish painted and the actual reality of the situation didn’t add up.

Was Blackfish a balanced documentary?

Bluntly put, no. When gathering information it’s important to gather from unbiased sources. Or sources from both sides to ensure you’re presenting a balanced perspective to an audience. Objectivity cannot be achieved when underpinned by an agenda and a documentary cannot be balanced if the majority of people given screen-time have strong ties to certain beliefs. Then it becomes an advocacy film and not really a valid source of scientific information.

Let’s have a look at the ex-trainers who were interviewed (in order of appearance), their experience with captive killer whales and Tilikum and how long they were on screen for.

So let’s look at our data. Samantha Berg, with only a year of experience in training killer whales is given the most screen time. Interestingly, she also has ties to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Berg, along with Carol Ray and Howard Garrett (one of the orca “researchers”) was a part of their attempt to sue SeaWorld, equating killer whales in captivity to slaves (Source). Not only is this ridiculous but it shows a complete misunderstanding about what slavery actually is (and I won’t even get into the racist implications of this). Also there was clearly a conflict of interest here and some pretty intense cognitive bias

By using screentime of ex-trainers alone, there was only one “pro-captivity” voice in there, Mark Simmons. He was one of the two trainers who had actually worked with Tilikum and had given a 3 hour interview (source). He was given 2.1 minutes of screen time and portrayed as a conflicting side to what appeared to be overwhelming amounts of emotive accounts passed off as “evidence”. Why would you give the person who was undoubtedly the most qualified out of every person interviewed only 2.1 minutes of screentime?

Mark has had extensive experience with Tilikum, the whale at the heart of the film. To understand who Mark is, you need to know that he has worked with marine mammals for more than 27 years. He specialized in marine mammal behavioral sciences throughout his ten years of employment at SeaWorld Orlando. While there, he also worked with Tilikum. He was one of the first trainers to work with Tilikum in Victoria, Canada before he was moved to SeaWorld. Mark worked with Tilikum daily until his departure in 1996. (Source)

Simmons not only had decades of experience but he had worked daily with Tilikum and has significantly more experience compared to Jett’s measly 4.5 years of experience. He also had a background in behavioural sciences, which would have been a foundation for how he approached every interaction with the animals. Yet, we’re led to believe that people who had never even worked with Tilikum (Hargrove, Ventre, Berg, Marino ect.) knew more about him and what was best for him than Simmons did.

But maybe it’s because he’s evil and brainwashed by SeaWorld!!

He was not employed by SeaWorld, worked with marine mammals outside of SeaWorld and had no conflicts of interest. 

If SeaWorld had chosen to participate in the film, would they have also received the same treatment? Extremely likely. It’s clear that this film had an agenda and emotion sells better than facts.

Balanced? I don’t think so.

[foreverorkid28]

Dolphin Research Center

Linda, DRC’s VP of Animal Care and Training, explains peduncle bands, one of the many precautions we put in place with the dolphins for storm events. Pax and trainer Sarah B. demonstrate! #FloridaNow #FLKeys

[foreverorkid28]

Dolphin Research Center was live.

DRC president Rita, training staff and, of course, dolphins, show how we work with a recall device called a pinger as one of our many precautions for the dolphins during storm events. #FloridaNow #FLKeys (Sorry about the camera angle on this one. It showed up fine while filming. We did better next time!)

[foreverorkid28]

Myth busting - “all/most of captive killer whales have their teeth worn completely to the gums!”

I took all the deceased whales I could find a decent photo of, and who lived in human care for at least twelve months. I excluded those that died within twelve months because that might seem unfair to include, as “they didn’t have time to wear down their teeth”.

I get it to about 10% (8 out of 80) having really bad teeth. Same with living whales, coming later.

Full size

[foreverorkid28]

Helping Animals After Harvey

As the East Coast braces for a potentially catastrophic hit from Irma and disaster response is in full swing in Houston, a people obviously want to know what they can do to help. The politics of disaster response regarding animals can be complicated, so here’s some quick information:

Pets:

If you want to donate money, the best thing you can do is to donate it to a rescue organization local to the area that was hit. These smaller organizations often need the help the most, and it’s important to support the local businesses that are likely dealing with storm damage themselves (I wish I had a list of local rescues to recommend - please feel free to add suggestions in the reblogs or comments). 

If you want to adopt an animal post-Harvey and you live somewhere else in the country, or your shelter is asking for donations to support rescued animals from the storm, double-check that they’re only adopting out animals that were already living in shelters before the storm hit. After Katrina, a lot of animals who had families waiting to reunite them were transported across the country to other shelters - so just check and make sure they’re not actually adopting out animals who might have families back in Texas.

Don’t donate to large animal advocacy organizations that have gotten involved unless you’ve vetted their work very thoroughly. HSUS and PETA have both shown up in the Houston area and are doing massive fundraising drives for their efforts there, but before choosing to donate to them keep in mind PETA’s track record for euthanizing adoptable animals and the fact that HSUS only put a fraction of the donations they received post-Sandy towards helping animals impacted by that storm. There are some seriously iffy posts coming out of Texas about the conduct of HSUS and the ASPCA regarding their takeovers of local rescue efforts and the disappearance of large numbers of dogs - I can’t vet the truth of those reports, but given the previously known conduct of these organizations, it may just be worth staying clear of them if you want to be sure your money is actually going to help animals. (IMPORTANT: HSUS is NOT associated with local Humane Societies unless their website explicitly states that affiliation, so those groups are fine to donate to). 

Wildlife:

Donate to wildlife centers and rehabs, as they’re likely taking in a huge number of animals after the storm. The Houston SPCA Wildlife Center of Texas is one facility that has been reported on needing help to care for the sheer number of animals brought in by concerned people post-Harvey. 

If you like bats, consider contributing to the Bat World Sanctuary - they’ve taken in over 400 rescued bats that lived under the bridges in Houston. 

Zoos:

The zoos in Texas are working together to help affected facilities - it’s been great to see facilities and trade organizations that normally compete with each other putting all that aside and collaborating on disaster response. When it comes to helping out zoos after Harvey, there are two things you can do: donate to the zoos, and donate to the zookeepers.

The Texas Zoo in Victoria was really hard hit by the hurricane, with  mature trees were blown onto most of the buildings and several exhibits, causing major damage and all buildings on site flooding. Their animals are currently housed with other zoos while they repair the damage - you can donate directly to them here. 

The Forth Worth Zoo is taking donations to help fund the disaster response program at the Texas Zoo. 

The San Antonio Zoo is taking donations to help fund disaster relief for zoos across the state, and although their website doesn’t specify which facilities, news articles indicate they’re involved with helping both the Texas Zoo and the Downtown Aquarium in Houston. 

The Downtown Aquarium in Houston does not have a direct donate link on their website, but news reports indicated there was flooding in the building during the storm. 

The zookeepers in the areas affected by Harvey also need help to rebuild their lives after the storm, as many of them lost quite a lot to the storm. 

AZA has set up an employee relief fund for the staffers at AZA institutions affected by the storm (such as the Downtown Aquarium and the San Antonio Zoo).

The Houston Zoo has started an employee relief fund specifically to support their staffers. 

[foreverorkid28]

Katrl & Kukdlaa at Shedd Aquarium 😍

[foreverorkid28]

When an anti comments under one of my post:

[foreverorkid28]

Never make fun of someone’s passion because that’s the thing that saves them from the world.

Unknown (via wordsnquotes)

[foreverorkid28]

Keet and his parents Kotar & Kalina (a genealogy comparison)