14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, 15-year-old Bindi Irwin announced that she had entered a partnership with marine park SeaWorld. Chiefly due to documentary film “Blackfish,” which exposes SeaWorld's cruel ways of treating marine mammals, few took lightly to this piece of news.
According to Ecorazzi, Bob Irwin, i.e. the teenager's grandfather, is one of the folks who would've preferred the 15-year-old not to team up with the so-called abusement park.
Writing on the official website for his Bob Irwin Wildlife & Conservation Foundation Inc., Bindi's grandfather explains that, until the official announcement made on “Good Morning America,” he had absolutely no idea that the teenager had agreed to work together with SeaWorld.
He further stresses that he does not in any way condone the practice of keeping animals captive and making a profit by making them perform in front of an audience, and that neither did the late Steve Irwin.
“My personal stance is that any organization that keeps animals in captivity that does not consider and provide for that animal’s physical, mental and emotional needs should not be keeping that animal and other solutions should be sought out,” Bob Irwin reportedly said.
“Steve and I were as one on the issues of animal welfare, community education and engagement in conservation,” Bindi Irwin's grandfather went on to add.
Together with Sea Shepherd leader Captain Paul Watson, Bob Irwin says that he can only hope that, contrary to expectations, Bindi's partnership with SeaWorld will somehow help promote conservation efforts and benefit animals forced to live in captivity at various facilities around the world.