Hi folks, late night/early morning musings. Cetaceans in captivity is a controversial issue, particularly with orcas so what I was wondering is if cetaceans were ever kept in captivity in the UK again what are your thoughts? What would be the minimum spec. for any facility housing them? Do you think any UK zoo could house cetaceans or would facilities devoted to aquatic animals be better places for them ? Can orcas be succesfully maintained in captivity? What about animal shows ? are you cool with cetaceans being kept only to preform or would you rather they were only kept to breed from and no showing took place? Any other questions you think are important to be raised -Sam
Like you say, controversial subject. I personally sit on the line with the issue a little, as whilst I'm skeptical it is successful or even whether it can be successful, I wouldn't say no to seeing a UK zoo take them on providing they had the finance and space to do it as well as possible. Whereas we may never make it perfect, we should strive to make it as good as possible for them. The other issue about whether they should be in shows or just kept for breeding, I would say they should do both. Whereas shows can quickly become tacky, cheesy performances just to draw in a crowd in the wrong hands, I think if they are done right they have the benefits of educating the public if an educational message is placed within the show (shows how they get prey, how high they can jump, how intelligent they are and many other things that could be shown via the presenter), and in my opinion the training and shows would act as a stimulus for the animal as it is having to use its intelligence, rather than swim around pointlessley all day.
Personally I don't think a sustainable population of orcas can exist in captivity due to there size, the number in captivity at the moment isn't great enough to be genetically viable and thee mortality rates when captured from the wild. I think the smaller dolphins such as bottlenose dolphins and small whales like belugas do much better in captivity. Im not even averse to the notion of establishing a captive popluation of amazon river dolphins. As long as the animals are housed in natural pods and there enclosures arent bare concrete pits full of water. Im generally against the huge schedules of shows that they are often expected to do I would prefer if it was a once a day show and the show tank was seperate from there living or display enclosure.
I think I agree on all points there - I would also like to see a case where animals are trained, but they have a choice on whether to come out and perform. If they don't, shows should stop as it proves it is of no benefit, however if they do it shows that they enjoy keeping their minds active this way.
