It’s Official: SeaWorld Trainers Banned From Entering Orca Tanks During Shows

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In a major legal setback, SeaWorld has lost its appeal to overturn a 2010 safety violation issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), meaning trainers will no longer be allowed to enter the orca tanks during shows. The OSHA slapped the aquatic theme park with the violation after one of its orcas, Tilikum, killed trainer Dawn?Brancheau during a routine performance at SeaWorld-Orlando, the subject of the 2013 documentary “Blackfish.”

The ruling, applauded by animal advocacy groups, is intended to keep the trainers safe from physical harm but will also benefit the orcas as they tend to experience stress when trainers are present in the water with them. It’s unclear what the orca shows, one of SeaWorld’s main draws for visitors, will look like now that the trainers can no longer participate with the giant marine mammals.

SeaWorld attempted to fight the citation in November 2013 when Eugene Scalia, son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, represented the park in federal appeals court.

Scalia… argued that physical contact with killer whales is as critical to his client’s core business as blocking and tackling are to professional football. By banning trainer-to-orca contact at SeaWorld, he argued, the government was irreparably changing and undermining the ?premise of its business model.? OSHA’s restrictions were akin to telling “the NFL that close contact would have to end,? Scalia said, adding that the NFL saw more player injuries on any given Sunday than had occurred at SeaWorld in the past 22 years.

Scalia’s flawed argument, of course, ignores the fact that NFL players are not rounded up, confined to cells ill-suited for their size, and forced to perform against their will.

The ruling is sure to affect SeaWorld’s bottom line, but more needs to be done to prevent the confinement of orcas and other highly-intelligent marine mammals such as dolphins. Already, legislation is being proposed in both California and New York that would ban orca shows in those states.

When it comes to marine mammal shows, the U.S. should follow India’s lead. Last year, the South Asian country banned all captive dolphin shows, stating that the mammals “should be seen as ?non-human persons? and as such should have their own specific rights and is morally unacceptable to keep them captive for entertainment purpose.”

Edited/Published by: SB

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Joseph Guyer?lives in Texas. An ad man by trade, he firmly agrees?with Bill Clinton that there is nothing wrong with America that can’t be cured by what is right with America. You can read more of his work at?Liberals Unite,?DemoNews, and?SenaReider. You can also follow him on Twitter?@joerobguy.

 

Joseph Guyer resides in the reddest state in the Union, a wondrous place where pick-up trucks proudly display swinging novelty testicles, fried sticks of butter are deemed safe for human consumption, and female escorts can lawfully be shot for refusing to sleep with you. He firmly agrees with Bill Clinton that there is nothing wrong with America that can't be cured by what is right with America. You can find him on Twitter @joerobguy.