*Because of a class from 7-9:30 on Thursday I was not at the discussion, this response is on the documentary Blackfish*
As a child I always wanted to go to a zoo. Being fortunate enough that I grew up far enough from a city, hiking in the summer and fall, and going to the mountains in New Hampshire in the winter I saw a lot of natural wildlife. The most exciting was seeing my first moose while driving in the northern part of New Hampshire. From that sense, I understand the allure of being able to see great animals up close. It creates a memory that is unforgettable. For this reason, I understand the reason that zoos are so popular.
Having once gone to a zoo I also understand the reason people are thrilled to go to them. Especially if you are from a city the ability to look at animals that you have never seen before is an amazing experience. However, Blackfish paints a different picture. While primarily focused on SeaWorld and the orca whales that live there, Blackfish paints a larger and darker image of zoos around the world. The scary apart about zoos are not when everyone is there, but when the lights go off and the animals are left in even smaller cages. Should a zoo only be okay to go to base on the size of the cage that animal lives in? Or how much the animal usually travels in a normal day versus how much it can while it is in its enclosure?
Both of these questions I believe are important when determining whether a zoo is a plausible place for an animal to live. If an animal usually has extremely large migrating patterns, then putting that animal inside of a zoo just makes no sense. The zoo should be a place that we can take in the beauty of an animal without taking away its way of life. For this reason, orcas along with many other animals are most likely unable to live in zoos. It might be not as cool to go to the zoo and see a much smaller variety of animals about. Or zoos could look at this another way. How they could turn the enclosures into much better areas for the animals. How could zoos learn from what has happened at SeaWorld has done to make sure that the animals are living in okay enclosures.
While watching Blackfish I often imagine the opposite in terms of how large of a space would humans have to live in to be okay. Again I have been fortunate enough to have traveled and experienced the vastness of the wilderness. Personally I can’t imagine trying to live an apartment my entire life. While I might not know knowledge of the outside world I believe that deep down your inner soul would want to explore. I believe that pour inner animals would also come out in very negative ways just like the caged orcas.