Seaworld is famous for its diversity of marine creatures, the most prominent being the killer whale. However, around the year 2000, outcries arose as a result of the mistreatment of these animals.

14-year orca trainer, John Hargrove, testified to support the claims, stating that SeaWorld employees were forced (by indoctrinaton) to state  23% of orcas as having “naturally” collapsed dorsal fins, although “the actual figure is 1%, compared with 100% of captive adult males” (David Kirby, Death At Seaworld). In addition, the whales were denied basic necessities including food, and moreover “broken teeth [were] drilled hollow,” along with orca calves forced to depart from their mothers at birth (David Kirby, Death At Seaworld). Not only were the animals neglected and tortured, but so were the trainers themselves. Hargrove was constantly “burned by chlorinated water, ”which lead to a painkiller addiction that was difficult to overcome, and as a consequence, this lead to permanently injured knees, a neck, and back (David Kirby, Death At Seaworld). Most of the employees were even afraid to speak up, attributable to threats by the company to sue. Obviously, these exposures sparked great controversy over whether Seaworld was an animal-friendly entertainment business. But of course, no entertainment business succeeds without risks involved. Seaworld may have taken it too far.

Since the uproars and 2013 documentary, Blackfish (which directly addressed these issues), many organizations, ordinary people, and Seaworld trainers have gathered the courage and resources to stop the mistreatment of orcas and other animals in Seaworld (specifically, the main star of Blackfish– a killer whale known as Tilikum, also the Seaworld’s best-known and largest orca) (Tim Zimmermann, news.nationalgeographic.com). Nevertheless, in recent news, Tilikum is deteriorating as a consequence of a bacterial lung infection (Tim Zimmermann, news.nationalgeographic.com). Because Tilikum has changed the way we perceive killer whales  and the conditions under which they suffer when living under captivity, this is a significant landmark for Seaworld. After long years of tormenting animals and spreading false information, Seaworld will be faced with the guilt of Tilikum’s death. There has been no found cure for what Tilikum is currently enduring, and thus his death is expected. Hopefully, Tilikum’s death will push Seaworld to outcast their greed for money and release the whales in captivity, although it may be a bit too late to free these poor animals after what they have withstood (Tilikum has been in captivity for 33 years now) (Tim Zimmermann, news.nationalgeographic.com). At best, Seaworld will close down. If Seaworld continues to pursue it’s avaricious interests even after this tragedy, at least Tilikum would have engraved a beacon into the hearts of everyone who truly did care for these gracious creations.