Sea World Captivity Debate Has Animal Rights Activists Running Wild On CNN

The Sea World tragedy that took the life of orca trainer Dawn Brancheau continues to wreak havoc on the typically civil world of zoology. Last night on Larry King Live, Jack Hanna once again assumed his position as spokesman for the marine biologist community and, with the help of former Sea World head trainer Thad Lacinak, debated a second round with Jane Velez-Mitchell and fended off some personal attacks from animal rights activist Ric O’Barry.

The segment on whale rights more closely resembled a rerun of Crossfire than an Animal Planet special. The highlight of the discussion was easily the rapid deterioration of the discussion between O’Barry and Hanna from a reasoned debate to a competition between the two to see which would more effectively be able use personal attacks to brand the other an animal abuser. O’Barry — who was once a trainer himself but left the “spectacle of dominance” because he felt the practice of keeping a whale in captivity was cruel — opened the show with his side of the story, but the tone of the discussion quickly shifted when, in his response, Hanna noted that O’Barry “is one of the few people in the world– the Marine Mammal Protection Act– that had to pay a $60,000 fine for trying to release two dolphins into the wild, one of the few people ever fined by this institution.”

O’Barry didn’t mince words in his response. Rather than address Hanna’s point, he nonchalantly noted called Hanna “a dyed in the wool PR hack for zoos and dolphin abusement parks,” to which Hanna replied: “I’m very proud of it, too.”

Is it good news for the political world (and bad news for cable news ratings) that political talk show debates are being eclipsed in their personal offensiveness by a bunch of biologists?

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3 comments

Magister says:

March 2, 2010 at 4:09 pm

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One assumes that the girl who died believed in what she was doing and while it may be worthwhile to discuss animal treatment or the no-longer-practiced system of “kidnapping”, if you’re using Ms. Brancheau’s death and calling into question her life’s work to further a political cause, you’re no different than those you’re accusing.

libra blue says:

March 3, 2010 at 3:30 am

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Of course Jack Hanna and others of his ilk are going to defend holding animals against their will in captivity. Without this animal abuse they call “entertainment,” Hanna wouldn’t have a job. Wild animals do not belong in captivity for any reason (except to treat an injury) especially not to be paraded in front of a group of noisy parents and their screaming brats ad nauseam.

You don’t learn anything from forcing a wild animal to perform unnatural acts in an artificial setting. They weren’t meant to be confined or to perform stupid tricks for human entertainment.

It was a terrible accident, but Tilly did not deliberately mean to kill this woman. He acted on instinct which is totally unpredictable. When things like this happen the trainers are usually careless. It is amazing that Tilly is being held more accountable than supposedly intelligent human beings who deliberately and maliciously commit murder.

I think the two stupidest things I have heard so far is Jack Hanna telling Larry King that whales are better off in captivity and that these animals are “happy.” How does he know what they are feeling? No Jack whales were meant to be where nature put them, in the ocean, not in a “pool” of water at Sea World.

That is why they are called “killer whales.”

userpat says:

March 3, 2010 at 6:58 pm

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Thad Lacinak came on like a bully from the start in a clear ploy to throw the dialogue off-center. His attacks on Tippy Hedren and Rick O’Barry came out of nowhere, and as if he intended to sideline the issue of animal abuse. To Jack Hanna, I can only say that that people do not go to Sea World for education. Sea World entertainment represents that old fuzzy lovey tv dreamworld many of us live in, where we humans see ourselves as animals’ bests friends . . . hugging them, kissing them, stretching out on their backs, like they are pets. I’ve watched the video of Tilly feeding and doing tricks the full minute before the attack on Ms. Brancheau, and all I can possibly imagine is a huge beast acting on instinct, without any intention of malice. And for that reason alone, this sort of entertainment should come to an end. If we want to observe the Orca scientifically, it can only be done objectively in the animal’s native surroundings.

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