there are currently about 18 orcas remaining in captivity in the US, most born in captivity. barring about 3 or 4, who are doing relatively DECENT at most, the rest more or less are struggling psychologically.
none of them can go back in the wild. they don’t have the intricate skills orcas need to survive. no “seaside sanctuary” is an ideal place for them either, the latest proposed is around 100 acres. 0.16 sq miles for animals who travel at least 100 miles per day. the feasibility of building a humane sanctuary is pretty much impossible. even if you could build it, how many orcas could it hold? a dozen maybe? not even. what about the rest? would they bond with each other? probably not! a small pen in the ocean is still a small pen.
there is not an ideal solution for these animals, yet we keep them alive and suffering to ease our moral sensibilities. their natural habitat is not replicable. people are too focused on how they feel about the idea of euthanizing animals rather than focusing on the animals they supposedly care for so much. it’s so selfish.
orcas are NOT people. they don’t have these far off and abstract hopes of an unlikely better future. they’re chronically distressed, there’s no joy to balance it and no relief from their stress in captivity. the breeding practices have already ended here. but why keep them suffering for the rest of their life? so we feel better?
everyone’s so afraid of sounding heartless but i care about animals and want them to live the best lives they can. and in my opinion, allowing an animal to live miserably just to preserve the better fed than dead mentality is way more cruel than giving it a peaceful out. this may be upsetting but i think pretending these animals have hopeful futures when they don’t is worse.
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I feel the same way about kittens 🙁 unfortunately humans are so selfish and irresponsible that we have a massive feral cat population in many places. I have a friend who spends her life trying to save them but it’s a massively losing battle, and it’s the cats and also local wildlife who suffer because we can’t take responsibility. So while I love cats and have already saved around 7, there’s a limit and I think unfortunately a lot of them should be euthanized. It’s the humane thing to do 🙁
unless you feel the same way about all animals that exist solely as private property, this “opinion” means nothing. i hope youre out there protesting the use of cattle, chickens, dogs, cats, horses, all the other animals that are nothing but property. but youre not. hell, you drink lattes, and as such directly benefit from a much, much worse form of animal cruelty. but hey, orcas dont give you that yummy milk or steak, right?
Idk, I’d rather give them the chance to thrive in the wild, personally.
If they get killed by other predators, then that’s nature. Not giving them a shot seems worse to me.
But getting them out of captivity should definitely be a priority
Given that “euthanized” is a mercy killing, I’m curious what inhumane euthanasia might look like.
They absolutely can and should be released.
The release of a captive orca has only been attempted once. Keiko never joined a social group, and died of pneumonia 5 years after being released, at an age well below the life expectancy for a wild orca… but that is a success!
Orcas are not “people,” no, but they are intelligent, conscious persons. Every one of them deserves the opportunity to go home.
Is there a reason, besides an arbitrary human-decided intelligence/brain-size cutoff, this same rationale wouldn’t apply to sharks, turtles, gorillas, pandas, and many other species of animal?
I’ve heard this argument before, and I’ve heard counterarguments. But in my view, either you’re against all animals in captivity, or you’re not. Just wanting to set the orcas free is extremely arbitrary.
i read “orc” instead of “orca” and was so confused that we had big green brutes in captivity
That must be among the most inhuman things i’ve ever heard. Killing living beings instead of giving them a chance at life. That’s not yours to decide.
After watching a documentary about Keiko I agree with this.
Orcas are one of the animals that might be able to rationalize the hopes of a better future. Cetaceans are extremely smart and some studies suggest they have more complex brains than us.
Feed OP to the whales.
I agree.
They are social and highly intelligent animals who are being denied room to roam and the ability to form pods or even reproduce.
Euthanasia them all would be the kindest fate
Or release them and see what happens.
I had no idea this was an unpopular opinion. We, humanity made a fucked up impulsive choice for curiosity/money and now we have to deal with it.
Releasing bred in captivity animals without the hunting and social skills to thrive is wrong.
I’m not saying they should keep working/performing shows but releasing them is a slow painful death to satisfy our fucked up sense of morality/guilt we as a species continue to find ourselves in and will always find ourselves in at this rate.
This person has never seen Free Willy.
I have no opinion on this, but some of the comments are way more upset about this than I expected
As long as they dont catch new ones from the wild I see no problem in them keeping the ones they already have. Even breeding them and releasing new borns into the wild.
Agreed. Same for racehorses and racedogs. Every time the sport gets partially banned, you’re left with these animals that are nearly impossible to rehome.
Some find caring homes that will put twice as much effort on the owner, most will simply be abandoned or mistreated. Orca’s of course, have no other option at all.
The days of zoo, aquariums, race animals needs to end just as chicken fighting did. Caged birds and single pets that need to be part of a pair need to go as well.
Farm dogs like being farm dogs even though people think they don’t, huskies can be a pet if you can keep them active, fish love aquariums if they’re large and diverse enough, but for the most part we need to stop seeing animals as toys.
Zoos used to be the only time you’d see anything besides a grainy black and white picture of an animal, today you can watch hour long documentaries in 4K.
Why cant we do feeding in wild like with other wildlife in danger from bad summer like deer or elk? They would be fed if they remain in captivity anyways.
What if they prefer to live? Or should take away that freedom as well
Everyone’s so afraid of sounding heartless….but or as aren’t people. lol
Then why should we do anything about it. If they aren’t people then they shouldn’t be given the same considerations we give people right?
Ultimately, no we shouldn’t kill them. Yes, we should look into investing into some form of aquatic sanctuary large enough to give them a home. Impractical? No not really, but certainly expensive. That said, at the end of the day be very careful where this line of thought leads you. More or less everything you used to justify ending their lives could absolutely apply to people as well. Sorry you’re too old, or disabled, or disagreeable to let live. Would you justify it then? Grandma can’t live on her own without full time care, she’s not getting any younger, and we can’t return her to the wild, guess we better kill her? It’s the humane thing?
free Willy at least give them a chance instead of just kill them for no reason
And mother cows cry for their babies. Maybe we shouldn’t separate them. But I don’t think OP is ready for that.
I read this as “orcs” initially
Free Bill. Kill Willy.
Honestly I think it’s better to just give them as comfortable a life as we can until they die out naturally and not breed more of them. Just because the life they’re living isn’t as good as one they’d have in the wild doesn’t mean they don’t want to live, and unless you can speak orca and they’re saying kill me I’d say they would probably prefer to live, especially since they were bred in captivity and don’t know what the open ocean is like anyway. If you lived in room your entire life from birth that would be your normal. Psychologists spend every day explaining to people their upbringing isn’t normal, it’s just the only one they know. You may understand something isn’t quite right because of biology, but you probably wouldn’t want to die because of it, and as humans I don’t think it’s our right to make that choice unless they’re dying a slow, excruciating death.
Anybody who disagrees with this sentiment should listen to the Last Podcast on the Left series on Tillamook. Great listen anyways.
Okay so this is a topic I know a lot about since orcas are one of my special interests to the point I have one tattooed on my leg.
First of all the toothed whale family, which orcas are a part of, are very unique neuroanatomy and cognition-wise. While their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the brain area involved in “cold logic” and general executive function, is far less developed than any primates’, they have an extremely complex “emotional brain” – particular the ventromedial cortex and limbic system – likely allowing for intense subjective experiences of joy, love, pain and anger. This is in accordance with observations of complex social structures, strong bonds, separation anxiety and behavioural despair in these animals. Thus, such rich inner emotions make it difficult to argue for euthanasia given that they cant consent to being robbed of prospective joy and pleasure, even if we hypothesise that a life in captivity is constant pain and suffering.
Secondly, I don’t agree with how you dismiss the benefits of wild sanctuaries. While by no means comparable to swimming freely, these places still provide a decent area to explore and perhaps even more importantly the characteristics of their natural habitat like depth, sand and seaweed. The Port Hillford sanctuary off the coast of Canada for example features 100 acres of water, optimal physiological temperature for whales and many forms of other wildlife that coexist with wild orcas.
Overall, I think it’s hard to make an argument for why death would be a better option than life in a sanctuary with all the ethical implications that come with taking the life of an extremely emotionally complex animal.
Actually, the orca from Free Willy successfully found its own food and managed to survive in the wild. He only passed away after succumbing to pneumonia.
As someone who works in the zoological industry I have to speak up here. The Animals aren’t suffering. Unless you have experience with those individuals and a degree you are not in the place to decide how you think they feel. they are far outlining their wild counterparts, they’re some of the healthiest animals you’ll ever meet, get plenty of enrichment and activity throughout the day , and serve a purpose . The parks that own these animals are doing conservation work around the world and spend millions of dollars on rescuing wild animals to be released later if possible and they’re not the ones that decide who’s releasable , the Fish And Wildlife Department does. It’s not perfect but these facilities were started in the 60s so they do the best with what they have. So everyone please do some hard research before you make decisions.