Ethical Issues In Blackfish

While growing up in America, I have always been brought to zoos and aquariums. These animal holding locations give people an opportunity to see animals up close and personal. But to what expense on the animals does this bring? Blackfish is a documentary about Orca whales being held in captivity around the world and the effect it brings to the animals. This documentary provides the real information on how an animals can lose their natural abilities to live. In Blackfish, there is ethical dilemma that comes in many pieces. These dilemmas start from taking whales from their environment. Once the whales are ripped from their homes, they are placed in a large bathtub and taught to do tricks for food. When they do not perform as told the whales …show more content…
Descartes states “animals are ours to use in anyways we want. They are not sentient” (Vaughn 543). This statement has been long disagreed with but it puts perspective on the side of Sea World that is used for human pleasure. It gives an educational view on orca whales and teaches us about their environment of their ways of life. This is something that cannot be viewed on an everyday basis nor by people all over the world. This though, I fully disagree with. With the uses of technology that we have available today, we are able to fully learn about Orcas and their natural abilities! When looking at Regan’s view, “humans and animals have equal value and equal rights because they share particular mental capacities, they’re sensitive, experiencing beings” (Vaughn 547). This I have absolute agreeance with. Orcas have been proven to have large family bonds in which they do not separate, “in particular, a male orca will never leave his mother. He goes away to mate but always returns to his pod (Hogenboom). With what goes on with Orcas being ripped away from their mothers, I think this absolutely needs to stop. From this, to the different languages they speak, to not being able to separate when the whales disagree on something, it all needs to end. It’s quite easy as a solution to just say “release them back to the wild.” But this is something that cannot be done suddenly. In one case of Keiko, a whale that was introduced back into the wild, he was able to try to get himself back used to wild life and survived for 15 months on his own before passing of pneumonia (Kirby). What I would suggest as a solution to this issue is already in progress for the beginning part. Sea World has started a program to prevent any further whale breeding (Pedicini). The Orcas in captivity now will be the last set of Orcas. I would suggest a huge rehabilitation center for these whales. We