New Video Footage Gets Animal Rights Activists Up In Arms Over Killer Whales In Captivity

A video that was recently posted which appears to show a captive killer whale at SeaWorld beaching herself for over 10 minutes during a show has animal rights activists up in arms. Activists say they think the behaviour suggests the whale was trying to kill herself, however Sea World has shot back saying the behaviour is perfectly natural.

Potential suicide attempt

Rick O’ Barry of the Dolphin Project which is an animal rights group posted the video recently. The video shows a killer whale called Morgan lying motionless beside a tank following a performance at a water park in Tenarife Spain. The killer whale is currently on loan to the park from SeaWorld. Whales have been known to beach themselves whilst they are hunting on occasion, however if they stay on land for too long, they will die because their internal organs and muscles end up being crushed by their own weight.

The Dolphin Project released a statement saying they could not explain the reason for the orca’s behaviour, it was unsettling to say the least that a previously wild animal was now locked in park’s performance area.

The park itself shot back a response:

 “It is absolutely illogical and absurd to assume that the length and the quality of such video would be sufficient to make a conclusion and declaration of such nature,” the park said. “A voluntary stranding is a natural behaviour of orcas living in the wild. … The orcas at Loro Parque are trained to leave the water on their own accord. This behaviour is used for manifold purposes, for example, for presenting the animals to the public, for conducting corporal check-ups, for inspecting their blowholes, as well as for testing hearing abilities of the orcas.”

“There are no concerns with Morgan sliding out as shown in the video as the whales do this with some regularity,” SeaWorld told Fox News.

Target on its back

SeaWorld has long been a target for animal rights activists and just this year has yielded to pressure, deciding to phase out its killer whale show. The decision follows critics questioning the risks of keeping such large animals in captivity following the release of controversial documentary Blackfish.