>for me, the attack on SeaWorld's practices was also a defense >against the orca species. the trainers' deaths were not due to >a maniac animal that presented a docile nature but secretly >lusted for human flesh. instead, they were caused by an >incredibly smart creature driven insane by its captors -- and >here are the 12 systemic steps that led to it.
If humans interacted with orcas in the wild-- sane orcas, never tortured, on their turf, etc.-- would we be safer? It's hard to defend the orca as a peaceful species in regards to human interaction when the statistics of in-water human-orca interaction are presumably enormously limited. I'm not tremendously convinced that two deaths out of multiple daily in-water interactions in twenty years with Tilikum is the result of three plus decades of torture more than it is the result of what happens when humans tempt fate by entering the home turf of a much larger animal they simply cannot hope to control.
I'm sure fucking the orca's life up didn't HELP, clearly. I'm just not sure interacting with wild orcas daily in the water for twenty years wouldn't also result in three total deaths. They're fucking big, and ultimately they know they are in control once we are in the water with them.
>my resounding takeaway was that we should >appreciate whales only under their terms.
That was definitely my takeaway as well, my small gripe with the narrative focus aside. The ending achieves that, for sure, regardless of the path it took, just due to the power of that individual image of the former trainers watching the orcas live.
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