14 DAY TRIAL // This past March 7, a lawmaker in the state of California in the US proposed a new bill that animal rights activists will surely approve of wholeheartedly.
The bill in question, brought forth by Richard Bloom, a Democrat from Santa Monica, is intended to make performances such as the ones SeaWorld organizes on a regular basis illegal.
What's more, it aims to outlaw the practice of breeding killer whales, otherwise known as orcas, in captivity, and also to ban the import and export of marine mammals belonging to this species.
Huffington Post tells us that, in an interview with the press, State Assemblyman Richard Bloom explained that he decided to propose this bill in response to “Blackfish.”
This film was released back in 2013, and it documents the life of Tilikum, an orca responsible for the death of three people, including a top killer whale trainer.
“Blackfish” makes a case of how Tilikum only attacked and killed these people due to the fact that the many years it spent living in captivity took their toll on its mental wellbeing and turned it into an aggressive creature.
The message is pretty straightforward: keeping killer whales counts as animal abuse, and there is no reason why anyone should support this practice.
By the looks of it, lawmaker Richard Bloom also thinks that SeaWorld and other marine parks have no business keeping wild animals captive.
“There is no justification for the continued captive display of orcas for entertainment purposes,” Richard Bloom reportedly said in a statement.
“These beautiful creatures are much too large and far too intelligent to be confined in small, concrete tanks for their entire lives,” he went on to argue.
The bill proposed by said lawmaker is formulated in such a way that it targets all the marine park currently operating in the state of California.
Still, it is interesting to note that SeaWorld in San Diego is presently the state's only facility that keeps killer whales captive.
Should the bill pass, SeaWorld would not be required by law to free the animals it now keeps in its tanks. It would, however, be forced to retire them and move them to water enclosures anchored to the sea floor.
Wildlife enthusiasts would still be allowed to see them, but staging performances would be out of the question.
Commenting on the proposed Bill, SeaWorld officials wished to stress the fact that, regardless of what some people might think, the marine park was not in any way guilty of animal abuse.
“In addition to being one of the most respected members of the business community, SeaWorld also is a global leader in the zoological and animal welfare world,” they said, as cited by Live Science.
Furthermore, “We are deeply committed to the health and wellbeing of all of our animals and killer whales are no exception.”