Blackfish (film)

"Blackfish" the documentary movie

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• published: 22 Nov 2013
• views: 127311

A small sample of this amazing and shocking movie. Please take the time to view it in its entirety, as this is only a very small piece of an important message. *Please note: read below before commenting!* http://blackfishmovie.com Now can be viewed on Netflix **Note: Although I firmly believe that constructive mature debate on any topic is not only healthy but essential to making change, I also believe that when it comes to petty name calling it can be detrimental to BOTH sides of the issue! That said I have noticed over the past year that some of the threads have lost sight in the real topic and resorted to very childish name calling and self inflating statements. Though I hate to do it, I am considering banning certain instigators if this continues. This self serving behaviour takes away from the topic. No matter how clever your retort is, to most readers, you do NOT look intelligent when you resort to slander and "clever" jabs at someone on a personal level, and both sides look like they are "trying" too hard to sound smart! No one wins when it gets to this level. This is a very passionate topic, and everyone firmly believes in what they are arguing about, but when it gets down to it, there is always 2 sides...and lots of grey in between. It is true, this video is one sided...it is supposed to be! Lord knows that there is a lot of pro seaworld videos out there to balance the scales! It is up to us, to go and seek facts from BOTH sides and then make a decision of our own from the information we gather. In any fact finding journey you also must be a bit empathic, step into their shoes. Im sure most people who work at seaworld absolutely love the whales, it is most likely at the corporate (unattached) level that the big decisions are being made....the whales and employees become debits and credits on a piece of paper and that is where the cruelty starts. If the CEOs and management were also the trainers I guarantee you the money would be spent a lot differently. Also, It would be completely naive to believe that we could simply take a animal raised in captivity and simply release it into the wild and it would flourish. Most sane people wouldn't drive their pet dogs out to the woods and release it with a pack of wolves and expect it to fine. Although things have changed since the 70's, there is still a long way to go....this documentary did what it was supposed to do, it got people talking! As for my personal opinion, I believe that unless we are directly looking at helping the animal out 100% (no profit) we have no business in keeping whales in captivity simply to make money and employ people. Every effort needs to be taken into re-releasing an injured animal back into the wild, where it belongs...that means no breeding, no teaching it tricks, no shows, it is not a pet. It is our responsibility as humans to repair the damages we have done. It would also be naive to think that we could help these animals to the extent they need, without public funding. I imagine it isn't cheap just to keep a whale, let alone rehab it, so money does need to be made! They need to have public viewing but not as entertainment for people, but rather to encourage people to educate themselfs, learn respect for creatures other than themselves and donate through entry fees to get these animals back out in the wild. The majority of the money made needs to go back into rehabilitation, ie for the largest possible temporary rehabilitation tanks during the worst of their illness, or in ocean containment areas/bays so they can exercise learn to hunt etc. And not into stadium type seating, fancy sound systems, big screens, and fancy stuff to generate more profit....and not into large salaries for CEO's, marketing, etc....it needs to be run by people who are there for the animals and NOT for the money it makes from them....no profit!!! Profit just encourages them make excuses to keep the whales longer and possibly never release them....they cannot be viewed as equity generators ...period. If it can't be done like that, then we have no business getting involved to start with. I will now step off my soap box. I just wanted to state my personal opinion and ask that we keep on topic....This isn't a place to debate who has the best grammar, or who has the most clever comeback, who can get the last word in, no one wins with this kind of childish banter. Again, please offer new facts, theories and opinions regarding this movie and the debate of keeping animals in captivity 'til your hearts content...but unless it is something we all can learn from, keep the other stuff to private messaging!