Slashdot Mirror
SeaWorld To End Orca Breeding Program (latimes.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Amusement park operator SeaWorld Entertainment announced on Thursday that it is ending its orca breeding program. The announcement comes amid growing pressure from activists who found that whales and their trainers weren't treated properly. A 2013 documentary Blackfish cited a number of violent incidents at the amusement park. In an op-ed Joel Manby, President and CEO of SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment laid bare the details on why his company is shutting down the orca breeding program. "Customers visit our marine parks, in part, to watch orcas. But a growing number of people don't think orcas belong in human care. [...] Now we need to respond to the attitudinal change that we helped to create -- which is why SeaWorld is announcing several historic changes. This year we will end all orca breeding programs -- and because SeaWorld hasn't collected an orca from the wild in almost four decades, this will be the last generation of orcas in SeaWorld's care. [...] More than 3,000 species are endangered, and hundreds are lost every year. Americans and thoughtful people everywhere need to acknowledge these fundamental problems. SeaWorld takes seriously its responsibility to preserve marine wildlife. That's why we are partnering with the Humane Society of the United States. Together, we will work against commercial whaling and seal hunts, shark finning and ocean pollution.
The problem with shutting down the zoos is that now you're going to raise an entire generation of children who have never seen a lion or giraffe or orca, etc. and so have never developed that primeval sense of wonder and excitement for nature's creatures. Decades down the road, those children will be adults, and they'll be voting on wildlife preservation laws, and they won't give a shit about nature preserves, or fishing bans, etc. What do they care? Its just a bunch of bugs and fish and crap, pave it over with something useful, like a strip mall.
So the animal rights activists may think they're winning the day, but really, they're just eating their seed corn. A generation or two later and we won't even have animal rights activists, let alone animals for them to activate over.
In fact, at least for black prisoners, they do live longer in prison. Oh look, a source: http://www.reuters.com/article...
Being kept away from alcohol and drugs helps people live longer, who'da thunk.
Vegans and vegetarians can only exist in a society of carnivores (well, omnivores). Alone, the veggies would fail.
The primary benefit of eating meat is the nutritional density. A but of beef provides more energy than all the kale you can eat.
How many vegans do you know with physically or mentally demanding jobs? How many builders, roofers, personal trainers? How many professors, neural surgeons, aerospace engineers? Not many, I'd wager. And the few that exist require extreme dedication and nutritional study to keep it up.
If you want to live a veggie/vegan life, go ahead. It's certainly your right to do so. But don't act as though the whole world could live like that.
This signature is false.