Captain Paul Watson: If I Were CEO of SeaWorld

ANIMAL RIGHTS - VEGETARIANISM, 12 Jan 2015

Paul Watson, EcoWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service

Captain Paul Watson

There is no justification for the enslavement of animals.

None. There never has been and there never can be. Slavery is slavery—unjustifiable, cruel, evil and soul-destroying, both for the victims and the oppressors.

Circuses and places like SeaWorld are despicable places, and the only zoos that should exist are those that rehabilitate wildlife, contribute to the conservation of habitat and provide medical facilities for animals in the wild.

Up until 1979, adult mountain gorillas were murdered so that baby mountain gorillas could be captured and displayed at the Cologne Zoo. This was once a routine practice by zoos, and today this method continues with the mass slaughter of dolphins in drive hunts designed to capture dolphins for trade and display in dolphinariums around the world.

Because of places like SeaWorld, we have the horror of the dolphin slaughter in Taiji.

This makes any person, man, woman or child who purchases a ticket to SeaWorld, Marineland or any facility profiting from the display of dolphins as culpable for the crime as the business interests that have thrived for so long on animal slavery.

The greatest circus in the world is Cirque du Soleil, and it does not exploit animals. There are alternatives.

We live in the greatest electronic media age in the history of the world. A facility that incorporated huge IMAX-like screens depicting real wild dolphins, orcas, seals, sharks and fish in their real-life habitats would be just as thrilling and far more educational than these concrete prison cells where cetacean slaves are forced to perform stupid tricks solely for the purpose of providing amusement to humans. They are not really much different from the venues of ancient gladiatorial sports, in which animals were slaughtered for the amusement of the masses—except today the killing is prolonged and miserable.

It has been very encouraging to see the impact of the documentary Blackfish on the plummeting profits of SeaWorld. This cruel and unnecessary facility must be shut down.

This brings up two questions that I constantly hear. First, “What about the jobs of the people who work at SeaWorld?”

Yes, what about their jobs? Employment does not justify cruelty. Human slavery provided tens of thousands of jobs to merchants, sailors, seers, and escaped slave hunters. Do we care about their despicable jobs today? Not at all. Their jobs were consigned to the dustbin of history where they belonged.

I also have no sympathy for the shareholders who have lost and continue to lose their investments.

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Paul Watson is founder and president of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Go to Original – ecowatch.com

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