Killer Whales
Killer Whales and Coyote…..?
Yes…..they have much in common!
So to start….I invite you to watch the new film that came out in 2013 called Blackfish. It is a documentary regarding the cruel capture and life of misery that baby orcas experience. Why? These amazing beings, who are highly social, have a capacity for deep emotional bonds, and have unique languages in each pod, and who swim the great oceans of our planet, are placed in a tank in order to perform silly entertainment for humans.
Who wins here? SeaWorld is a multi-billion dollar business that takes advantage of our humanity’s awe of these amazing beings to create great wealth for a few. Who loses? By all means the Orcas lose…..and our children lose. When we take our children to SeaWorld, we support the continued capture and misery of these wild beings….AND we are teaching our children….that this is our relationship with them….that we can use them any way we want…..take their freedom away…take a baby orca away from its mother…that this is OK. By tacitly teaching our children this, we deny them the understanding of who these great whales are, and the true wonder of that understanding.
What do Orcas have to do with Coyote? They are both powerful, highly intelligent, major carnivores on our planet, with complex social lives, and deep emotional bonds. As a society of humans we allow the imprisonment and abuse of Orcas…either by supporting places like SeaWorld or by our silence … and as Americans we allow the intense persecution and cruelty to our continent’s Native Wild Dog… Coyote…by our silence.
So what are we teaching our children about these “Other Nations” as Henry Beston refers to those lives on our planet other than humans?
