Ask Marine World Not to Imprison Another Orca

September 15, 2000

Source-API(apiforanimals.org)

On August 14, 2000, Six Flags Marine World's sole surviving orca, Vigga,

succumbed to a heart and lung infection. While scientific evidence estimates

average life expectancy to be 50.2 years for females and 29.2 years for

males, Vigga was a mere 23. From the moment Vigga was wrenched from her

family in Iceland, all aspects of her life were manipulated to entertain

park patrons. Had she not been " kidnapped, " Vigga would have lived with her

family for her entire life. Even after decades in captivity, captive orcas

continue to produce the unique calls of their natal pod. Sadly, Vigga's

calls went unanswered for most of her life. Now Marine World is seeking to

sentence yet another active, intelligent, and social animal to a barren tank

by replacing Vigga with another orca.

You Can Help

Let Marine World know that a cement tank is no place for a marine mammal.

Urge Marine World not to replace Vigga with another captive orca but instead

to phase out all its animal exhibits which do not have the popularity of its

new rides and roller coasters that have attracted record numbers of

visitors.

The following are some points you may want to include in your letter:

Forcing marine mammals to live in small barren enclosures deprives them of

normal social and environmental interaction and activity levels.

Aquariums that display captive marine mammals are a disservice to the public

and the animals. Patrons visiting such aquariums witness and learn about

abnormal animal behavior as all aspects of the captive animals' lives are

manipulated. The real message conveyed is not one of respect but rather that

it's permissible and even encouraged to abuse nature.

Six Flags is a large and successful amusement park chain that clearly does

not need to exploit marine mammals to realize a profit.

Write to:

Kiernan Burke, CEO

Premier Parks, Inc.

11501 Northeast Expressway

Oklahoma City, OK 73131

09/13/00

_______________________

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at

http://profiles.msn.com.

September 17, 2000

My Groups | Main Page | Start a new group!

Hi Lyric 489 and everyone else;

I totally agree with the need to put a stop to taking whales from the wild. I

am in the process of writing to Six Flag's about this. I plan to suggest that

instead of having a whale show, that they have a human aquatic ballet troop.

The reason I am suggesting this, is that I think if we want them to stop having

large marine mammals, which we do, I think they are more likely to fulfill our

request if they have a do-able idea of what they can do instead. Just telling

them to stop doing what they are doing leaves them with a void, and makes it

easier for them to ignore our request on the excuse that they aren't

willing/able to let their money making facility just lie empty. It provides

jobs for people, which is what their main purpose is, so if we can show them an

alternative to displaying whales that would make us happier, I think that may be

helpful in persuading them.

What I think we want in that facility is something that is kind to people and

animals alike. An aquatic ballet troop would attract probably as many, or more,

tourist dollars as a marine mammal show. It could be varied widely to attract

repeat business (unlike marine mammals shows which tend to remain the same), and

would I think cost no more, and maybe less to obtain and maintain than large

marine mammals. With acquatic ballet being popularized by the Olympics, I

imagine there are troops and high caliber performers all over the place who

would be overjoyed to get a regular job doing what they love.

By putting an aquatic ballet troop into the tank rather than marine mammals, the

marine mammals get to retain their freedom, the humans get to keep their jobs.

It's a win/win idea, I think.

I remember when I was a kid, there was a place in Florida that had a " mermaid "

show. Women with long, floating hair dressed up in uni-leg suits with fish-like

flippers at the end so they looked like what we think mermaids. They did

mermaid-like tricks and stunts under water to entertain the crowd sitting on the

other side of the room-sized aquarium glass wall. It was magical. I figure the

sky's the limit in terms of what the imagination can come up with for such

aquatic shows.

Anyway, I just thought you might be interested in my idea, as I think it may be

a humane and constructive suggestion useful to offer as a replacement for marine

mammal displays all over the world.

Deborah