Time to stop using animals as entertainment

[Gem]

Originally Posted by knightofalbion

Oh, so that's okay then!

Seaworld's own website, bigging up Seaworld and saying what great work Seaworld do...No chance of any bias!
Do they show up as 'eco heroes' on any independent conservation charities websites?

Whales and dolphins belong in the wild, free as God intended, not trapped in an aquariam, which to an ocean going creature must be the equivalent of spending the rest of your life locked in a broom cupboard.

Oh my. God intended?

It's probably the equivelent of me being confined to a luxury resort on an tropical island, but that's a mute point, because there is no benefit in confining me at all.

In the case of Sea World and other zoos much research and rescue and conservation and public awareness is done... Near here there's a place called Currumbin Sanctuary. It's a zoo really. People pay to see the animals and there are performing parrots cockatoos etc... oh the horror.

That place saves so many injured animals and saves whole species from decimation, Koalas benefit enormously from that zoo... and if you look into it, Seaworld offeres many benefits to the ecology.

[knightofalbion]

Originally Posted by Gem

The wild animals benefit because sea world does so much to raise awareness about ocean conservation, and people go there to see the animals, learn about them, fall in love with them, and become passionate about nature.

Yes Gem, but did not Jacques Cousteau perform this very service to marine life with just cameras? and without depriving wild creatures of their freedom?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the experience of most people who visit such places involves watching dolphins 'dancing' and jumping through hoops, and whales 'bombing' and performing stunts with their 'trainers' etc.? That could be construed as humiliating and degrading, certainly unnatural and I fail to see how that inspires compassion - unless it be the sort that determines to put an end to such activities once and for all!

[knightofalbion]

[quote=Gem]1) Oh my. God intended?

2) It's probably the equivelent of me being confined to a luxury resort on an tropical island, but that's a mute point, because there is no benefit in confining me at all.

In the case of Sea World and other zoos much research and rescue and conservation and public awareness is done... Near here there's a place called Currumbin Sanctuary. It's a zoo really. People pay to see the animals and there are performing parrots cockatoos etc... oh the horror.

[quote]

1) We're on a spiritual forum. A disappointing reaction from someone with over 7,500 posts...

2) Wonderful I'm sure! So wonderful if the pools were opened to open water, all the inmates would bolt and never come back.

[Chrysaetos]

Originally Posted by knightofalbion

Would you rather be free as a bird, or locked in a prison cell for the rest of your life but provided with good food?

How do you know birds have a concept of ''freedom''?

I have pigeons and canaries. They aren't free like other birds, yet they have enough space to fly around and are treated well.

[Chrysaetos]

Originally Posted by knightofalbion

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the experience of most people who visit such places involves watching dolphins 'dancing' and jumping through hoops, and whales 'bombing' and performing stunts with their 'trainers' etc.? That could be construed as humiliating and degrading, certainly unnatural and I fail to see how that inspires compassion - unless it be the sort that determines to put an end to such activities once and for all!

How do you know it's a ''humiliating'' experience for dolphins to perform tricks and jumps?

Originally Posted by knightofalbion

1) We're on a spiritual forum. A disappointing reaction from someone with over 7,500 posts...

People don't have to subscribe to your spirituality.

[shadedragon]

(Maybe you guys should try talking to the animals rather then fighting over it, just an idea though :) they certainly don't bite when I speak to them telepathically. I work in a wildlife sanctuary, and I see that while these small areas are not good for the animals they are getting the food they need, for the most part they are thankful of being there, and then a few weeks later when they are big and strong enough to go out in the wild, they are released (although they often drop bye for a hello :) sometimes I've even been called upon to help, such as a bird once called me into the woods, it's nest being blow about with two little eggs in it. I see that animals do have feelings, they do recognize what is going on. Some animals are happy where they are. Others simply need to go back to the wild. I've been to this place where a little monkey lived, having been rescued from the wild. It was so happy to be there... I cannot express it in words the passion of this little monkey, how it would walk up to the small children and hold their hand, look into their eyes. Then it would go and play with the other monkeys and it would tell me it was happy.. I believe humans have no right to contain animals, but here this one came forward at a park with others. We simply have the right to watch them and interact with them when they allow us to. :) we don't need zoos to inspire children, we need Mother nature to inspire them..

[Gem]

Originally Posted by knightofalbion

Yes Gem, but did not Jacques Cousteau perform this very service to marine life with just cameras? and without depriving wild creatures of their freedom?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the experience of most people who visit such places involves watching dolphins 'dancing' and jumping through hoops, and whales 'bombing' and performing stunts with their 'trainers' etc.? That could be construed as humiliating and degrading, certainly unnatural and I fail to see how that inspires compassion - unless it be the sort that determines to put an end to such activities once and for all!

I'm merely taking a holistic viewpoint.

Ideally the ecology would be healthy and wild animals would roam in forests where our farms and cities are built, but that's not the reality of the world. The reality is a terrible tragedy actuallly.

Seaworld and marine parks aren't the perfect utopia, but the people there are not cruel to animals, they care about animals and the environment and do more for conservation than the ones who are complaining here, I bet.

[knightofalbion]

Originally Posted by Chrysaetos

How do you know birds have a concept of ''freedom''?

I have pigeons and canaries. They aren't free like other birds, yet they have enough space to fly around and are treated well.

The desire to be free is a natural instinct inherent in all living things.

I have many pigeons too - only the ones that visit me are wild. And most of them have rings or are the offspring of ringed birds, obviously these ones at least prefer the open sky.

Someone I know had a canary. She used to let him out and he'd fly round the room like a crazy thing, so happy to be out of his cage.

[knightofalbion]

Originally Posted by Chrysaetos

1) How do you know it's a ''humiliating'' experience for dolphins to perform tricks and jumps?
2) People don't have to subscribe to your spirituality.

1) Of all the people on here only you could have asked that question.

2) Indeed not, but after 7,500 posts one would like to have hoped for something a little more enlightened than "Oh my. God intended?"
Birds are 'designed' to soar through boundless skies, not be locked in small cages. Whales and dolphins are 'designed' to span the breadths of the oceans, not be confined in aquariums.

[knightofalbion]

Originally Posted by Gem

I'm merely taking a holistic viewpoint.

Ideally the ecology would be healthy and wild animals would roam in forests where our farms and cities are built, but that's not the reality of the world. The reality is a terrible tragedy actuallly.

Seaworld and marine parks aren't the perfect utopia, but the people there are not cruel to animals, they care about animals and the environment and do more for conservation than the ones who are complaining here, I bet.

And that is the core of the issue. 'We' have grown up in a world were the corrupted Old Testament-style view of nature has held sway i.e. that man is lord and master of all he surveys and he can do whatever he likes. Hew down forests, rip up the earth, kill and do with the Animal Kingdom as he pleases...
The 'reverence for all creation' message, that was originally taught, the Sacred Trust, was cast aside and carnage was unleashed.

What the world needs is what it has always needed love, compassion and respect for Mother Earth and all her inhabitants.

Wheter they care about animals and the environment or otherwise, I'm in no position to say, but either way there are ways of caring about animals and helping the environment that don't involve imprisoning wild creatures in small, unnatural environments and then charging members of the public sizeable amounts of money to go and watch them 'dancing', 'bombing' and jumping through hoops.