Russ Rector on SeaWorld: Anyone in the dolphin training business knows that SeaWorld is the top of the pile, the Mount Everest of dolphin training facilities. Also known worldwide is that SeaWorld has the most spectacular and highly trained shows in the captive dolphin industry. There is no comparison between the caliber of the shows at SeaWorld and any other captive dolphin shows on the planet. All the performing animals at SeaWorld are considered the most highly trained, highly polished show animals to be seen. At SeaWorld the animals jump higher, do more and better flips and work together in the most highly synchronized manner - not achieved at any other dolphin show. SeaWorld shows must be perfect; at least that’s what the front office thinks. This perfection comes at a price. Making the animals perform to their maximum limit in every show is extremely stressful and frustrating for any performing animal, especially marine mammals. Making an animal jump 15 feet into the air when the same jump at 10 feet is just as spectacular and the public doesn’t know the difference. The shows and the training system at Sea World are very strictly controlled, extremely regimented and very demanding. Former trainers and other employees have described working at SeaWorld as almost being in the military, where every minute of every day is tightly controlled and totally scripted. Former trainers also described a training system that will tolerate nothing less than perfection. Animals that do not measure up during shows are worked between shows until they get it right. SeaWorld performers can be compared to Olympic athletes that must perform to their maximum each time they are called upon. This constant performing at the very physical limits of any animal exacts a heavy toll both physically and mentally. The amount of energy expended to lift an 8000 pound animal 15 feet out of the water instead of just 10 feet is probably close to 50 percent higher for the animal. And the public wouldn’t notice the difference! If the trainers at SeaWorld had to do the tricks instead of making the animals do the tricks, (and they are tricks not behaviors,) the shows would be very different. Usually only the trainers know when something doesn’t go just right during the show; the public usually doesn’t have a clue unless it’s something very, very serious. The shows are all written, choreographed and scripted by management, with only the final product in mind. The trainers just make it happen! Lolita, the killer whale at the Miami Seaquarium does one of the most pathetic shows I have ever seen. Lolita only does a handful of very simple tricks; she breaches but does not get her whole body out of the water. She does a few speed runs the twirling trick called “dancing”, and at the end of her show she does her slide out onto the stage, and she does only two shows per day. And yet the paying guests still have a wonderful time and seem to enjoy the show very much, which proves the public doesn’t expect that much from a show. So why overwork your animals? Maybe that’s why Lolita has survived as long as she has in that tiny tank! The entire show presented by the Miami Seaquarium is a joke. The Flipper show is sophomoric at best. The top deck show is a few jumps a few vocalizations and some fluke slaps. The Golden Dome Sea Lion show is the worst I’ve ever seen - it is truly pathetic! The rest of the captive dolphin facilities’ shows all around the country are just as bad and some even much worse than the Miami Seaquarium. So why does SeaWorld try so hard to be perfect? To have the highest jumps and flips the most synchronized performances when the rest of the industry is so far beneath them? If SeaWorld would just dial it back a bit maybe the attacks would stop or at least lessen. Too much pressure and stress is being created by the attempt to achieve perfection. The animals are paying the price and displaying the consequences. How many more animals at SeaWorld have too get up on the wrong side of the tank and hurt or kill a trainer in order to be heard? RUSS RECTOR FORMER DOLPHIN TRAINER PRESIDENT DOLPHIN FREEDOM FOUNDATION 824 SW 14 ST FORT LAUDERDALE FL 33315 954 462 1817
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 21:15:35 +0000
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