Michael Moore couldn’t have done a better one-sided smear piece if he tried.
Swift shot: If you have ever owned a pet, gone to the zoo, or even to a fair where they have pony rides for your kids, according to Blackfish . . . you are a horrible person. Oh, and if you have ever had a ham sandwich, eaten a steak or any other mammal, you are equally as horrible, but they don’t dare go there. No, they lead off with the capture of baby Orcas in the 1970s, ripping them from their mother’s pod as they screeched. According to some guy who has seen two wars or something, it was the most horrible thing he’s witnessed. Clearly, he hasn’t seen much of war. But, I digress, I come to bury Blackfish and its PETA-fueled director, Gabriela Cowperthweight. That is my agenda.
I have known one of the current (not FORMER) employees of Sea World since we were six years old; I consider him a brother from another mother. I flat out asked him when I heard about Dawn, “Dude, what the hell happened?” I can’t remember his exact words, but he made it known that these things are called killer whales for a reason (they are the top predator of the ocean), and maybe Tilikum just wanted to play and got carried away. Tilikum is known to be quite possessive of his toys. Ultimately though, I do remember him saying you can’t anthropomorphize Tilikum, because he can’t give you a reason – he can’t tell us what happened.
He was told flat out the first day he worked at “Believe” – you don’t go into the water with Tilikum, because you might not come out. That is just part of the job.
You see, Tilikum is this mammal that can’t quite seem to grasp the concept of death, to him, Dawn was just a toy. Or, we could hypothesize the opposite and say that Tilikum is a serial killer . . . whale. Or we could draw the conclusion that he only killed, because he was a captive animal – sooner or later they are going to snap. Or we could draw the conclusion that he was just really pissed off that day at Dawn, because she didn’t give him enough fish. Do I need to hold up a sarcasm sign?
The point is, these are killer creatures, predators. I will give the director credit for showing the footage of the seal being expertly stalked by a group of lethal Orcas. Oh, wait, do you see what I just did there? I distinguished a group of them as lethal, that’s kinda what the film tries to do too. It is Tilikum’s demon seed that (because he was raised in captivity) has spread across theme-parks worldwide. Thing is, you can’t distinguish one group as lethal and another as docile – in the wild they all gotta eat, right? So, which is it, is it nature or nurture? Is it his genetic pool (sue me, I like puns) or his upbringing? Guess what, folks? I have a degree in psychology, and that debate has still not been settled for humans! Guess what else, folks? Whales are mammals, just like us, so if we can’t settle the debate for humans, how can we settle it for whales that have a “language” we can’t understand?
Since the film’s previews all use the horrific capture footage to get you to watch the film, let’s just say it like it is. Sea LAND, which no longer exists, captured Tilikum, not Sea World. An ommitted fact from the film is something called the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which prohibits collecting whales. Also, while Sea World’s previous owners (in the 70s, prior to the law forbidding it) collected other whales, the park has gone through three other owners since then. This law is in force across the country.
But, to punctuate the facts, when Sea LAND closed, releasing, captivity raised, Tilikum into the wild would have been a death sentence. Sea World is world-renowned for their compassionate programs to protect animals exactly like Tilikum – since my friend and I have been alive, at least.
That is why they use Tilikum’s seed to breed them in captivity, so they don’t separate mothers from their kids in the wild anymore. They agree with the law. So, spare me your attacks on Sea World. For one, my friend spent his whole life loving just about every animal on land, air, or sea – and now he gets to interact with them on a daily basis. He gets paid for doing what he loves, and some PETA-smear piece is going to put him out of work, because he loves working with animals? Well, I don’t think so! I am not letting you go after my friend’s livelihood without a fight. I too am a mammal that spent years in captivity.
Dawn lived doing what she loved. Dawn died doing what she loved. We should all be so lucky, and if I ever get the call that my friend dies at Sea World, so be it. I’ll be beyond devastated, but I will know that he died doing something he believed in . . . just like when I was in the Marines, folks. If I died when I was in, my family would have been devastated, but I would have died doing something I believed in. All the film-makers are looking to do is capitalize on Dawn’s death, they don’t believe in what she stood for.
The footage from Mark Simmons was when I finally saw what the director was doing. She selectively edited his pieces, interwoven with others before, and after, to look like it was Mark saying that captive animals will always turn out bad, when in fact that is the exact opposite of what he said . . . if you pay attention, that is. I’m not watching it again to suss out all the other lies and manipulations.
In the end, all you have here is a one-sided, agenda-fueled exploitation piece smearing a good company, a good person, and an industry that isn’t quite as evil as they would have you Believe.
So, if you have ANY outrage over Blackfish, and just “can’t believe what humans can do” – fine, don’t eat meat, don’t own a pet, don’t go to a zoo, don’t attend a fair, and put a porpoise on your next ballot . . . otherwise, you are a hypocrite. And, of course, that is exactly what PETA wants! Oh, and the film’s main expert is actually named Duffus – that should be a clue to take this film for exactly what it is, a fiction-fueled sham.
