This has been a topic that has been talked about for quite a few years now, we've all been to a zoo or Seaworld or something similar and as kids we don't see the cruelty the animals go through being taken out of their habitat and put into a small space many times smaller to what they are used to in the wild.
And a place that's been heavily criticized is Seaworld, where they care more about money than their animals and workers, after a few deaths and the release of "Blackfish", the documentary of Tilikum the killer whale that was captured near Iceland at the age of two, and over the next two decades was involved in the death of three people that worked with the whale, that also suffered abuse from the workers and was locked up to 14 hours daily in small tanks and without light, and according to marine biologists working on the documentary these actions were what started the whales psychopathy and aggression.
In this documentary the dark side of Seaworld and killer whales is revealed, there has never been a death recorded from killer whales in the ocean, contrary to the ones in Seaworld that are kept in small tanks and develop mental problems and become very aggressive. But not only in Seaworld trainers were killed, once a Spanish worker from Loro Park in Tenerife, Spain was killed by a killer whale in 2009.
A very sad photo is the one above that I'm sure many people have seen before, it's the size of the tanks that the whales have vs the parking at Seaworld, imagine being stuck in a bathtub the rest of your life and now and then being able to swim in a pool but only doing the commands that your trainer tells you too for food. In the wild the orcas are in pods formed by a few whales up to a few dozen, unlike in captivity they are on their own, in the wild the calf remains with its mother until it's two, then it can move on or stay with their family, in captivity the mother and calf are separated, a traumatizing event for the mother at any age.
In the wild female orcas breed at around an age of 13-17 years old and give birth every three to five years, in captivity male whales are trained to lie on their backs so the trainers extract sperm from them and then impregnate via artificial insemination very young female orcas that have been separated from their mother and have no idea of a mother/child relationship, the lack of maternal experience and the stress of their environment has lead to many mother orcas in captivity to refuse their calves, something rarely seen in the wild.
In the wild, the orcas can travel up to 100 miles daily and dive up to 200 feet, in captivity it's estimated they would have to circle their perimeter 1,900 times to reach the same distance as in the wild, a luxury that is taken off them. This is what scientists believe why their dorsal fin is collapsed for the whales in captivity.
The life spam of orcas in the wild is astonishing their life expectancy is from 50 to 80 years, and female orcas outlive males, in 2014 they found a 103 year old off the Washington coast. Unfortunately in captivity it's a lot less and Seaworld manipulates their information on their website stating they have many in their thirties and dismiss the ones that die in captivity that don't even reach their sexual maturity age.
Many celebrities are on board and have tweeted #boycottseaworldday which is the 24th of July of every year, but it should be every day, boycott these companies as much as you can and do your own research and let others know of how cruel these companies are just to make money using these beautiful animals. Spread the word and let's make them shut down their facilities.
Sources: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/a-look-into-how-life-for-captive-orcas-differs-from-wild/
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfish
https://www.seaworldofhurt.com/3-pr-nightmares-seaworld-didnt-see-coming-boycottseaworldday/
https://support.peta.org/page/1543/petition/1
https://www.thedodo.com/7-reasons-you-and-everyone-you-641284214.html
Images from https://pixabay.com/