Seaworld Breeding Program

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What is the breeding program at SeaWorld? The breeding program is where scientists breed orcas through natural ways or artificial insemination. Artificial insemination is the impregnation of female orcas without them having to come in contact with a male orca. When scientists do this, they take the male orca’s reproductive cells and inject it inside the female orca, so her eggs will be fertilized. Occasionally, the scientists have to breed them this way because orcas will sometimes refuse to mate in captivity. It is also safer for both the orcas and scientists, and it has a higher pregnancy rate. During the past several years, the breeding program has been an extremely controversial subject. Even though some people believe that the breeding …show more content…
It has lead to horrendous things like miscarriages and mother death. This is usually due to the scientists and zookeepers breeding the whales too often. Taima, an orca from the SeaWorld in Florida, died at twenty years old from a prolapsed uterus. This occurred while she was giving birth to her fourth calf (Fins and Fluke). The scientists and zookeepers knew how often an orca could safely have calves, but they ignored the facts and continued to breed her anyway. Another two orcas that died because of the breeding program is Gudrun and her stillborn calf. Gudrun died four days after she had her stillborn calf pulled from her body. She bled out from her wounds, her dorsal fin collapsed, and she refused to eat for the several days before her death, but before she died, she got to say goodbye to her other calf, Nyar (Fins and …show more content…
By December 2014, 17 percent of people stopped going to SeaWorld (Jamieson). The drop was mainly due to people finding out how the orcas were treated. The people did not want to be around such appalling things, nor did they want to support it. In the small span of a year (2014-2015), the profits at SeaWorld plummeted 84 percent (Jamieson). People want to go places where they are going to have fun. They usually do not want to go to places that are going to make them depressed, and they especially do not want to take their children there. The breeding program also makes it difficult for SeaWorld to do renovations. The CCC (California Coastal Commission) refused to approve SeaWorld’s renovation plans unless they stopped the orca breeding program (Jamieson). The program is so controversial that the CCC did not want to have anything to do with it. If they had agreed to do it anyway, they would have lost support and money just like SeaWorld. By ending the program, SeaWorld would stop losing people, earn more profits, and be able to do important renovations that they
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