Captivity is a very controversial topic in the recent years. While many people feel it is inhuman to keep animals away from their natural habitats, others feel that it is acceptable especially when it comes to science advancement. Bringing wild animals into captivity is a risky task for obvious reasons such as aggression due to fright. Now imagine making wild animals breed in captivity especially when people think the offspring are going to be “tame” instincts still stay within an animal for generations. The enclosures containing these wild animals also tend to be rather small. This could most likely make these animals more dangerous because their mental status is commonly affected by being trapped in small spaces. They are unable to move like they should or would in the wild and their mental health is put into jeopardy. Animals who are thought to be tame or controlled living in captivity can turn at any point and wreak havoc on their captors in an unexpected way just like what occurred in Jurassic World and Blackfish. Humans have been trying to interact with wildlife since the beginning of time. Human and animals are separated in environment naturally. When animals are forced out of their habitat it can be assumed that they would be frantic as it is. Blackfish and Jurassic World show that keeping animals in captivity will affect their mental stability through the analysis of greater aggression, the human to animal relationship in the wild versus in captivity and how profit is more important than the welfare of the animal involved.

Blackfish is basically about the Orcas at Sea World; many people believe that the whales are not given enough space to swim and are basically in a “jail cell” for their whole lives. Not only have people been killed by these animals but people are pleading and creating lawsuits against Sea World for being abusive and having inadequate living conditions. Sea World disagrees but have announced the fact that they will not be breeding the killer whales anymore nor will they be capturing them from the wild. In comparison to Jurassic World, Blackfish is nonfiction and really has a more emotional effect, while Jurassic World has more of a visual effect because the whole movie has a sequence. Blackfish gives you facts and is rather bias whilst Jurassic World isn’t as bias or at least not directly bias, and makes the viewer think outside of the box.

Mental health and stability occurs in all animals not just humans. Animals have a brain too. As any person, could imagine, being taken from the only home ever known and moved to a new home can be very detrimental to the body and especially mind. As it can be imagined anyone or anything has potential to go crazy if contained and taken away from their natural habitat. As seen in Blackfish as well as Jurassic World, the animals are contained in a small space, this is ultimately recipe for disaster. Tilikum, the whale made famous for wreaking havoc among Sea World employees is a great example of how an animal can relapse due to its natural instinct. Although the movies are very different in setting as well as reality, they have a ton in common. As seen in Jurassic World, the dinosaurs are all genetically modified so they will supposedly be calmer and easier to care for. They also are bred all female because the scientist plan to have a controlled environment where they can control the amount of the behemoths that are produced. However, that doesn’t work because an animal used in the genetic makeup of the dinosaurs has the ability to change its sex which is also passed down to the dinosaurs. In Blackfish, many of the people who work with orcas everyday believe that the enclosures that they are held in are wrong, they believe the whales are not crazy just because they are born that way. Talking about instinct, all whales are whether born in captivity or not are born with some sort of instinct, and just as any animal or human has mental health and stability, they also are born with instinct. A human knows to run retreat if danger is an imminent threat and a whale knows that if something is swimming in the water and is smaller than its mouth, it could potentially be food, and that’s why many of the issues between orcas and captivity have occurred. Orcas are truly fascinating animals and are greatly upon by people as amazing and intelligent animals, which they absolutely are. For the ones born in to captivity, they have no knowledge of what the big ocean is like but still have the capabilities of any killer whale out there because of the instinct. Many of the trainers at Sea World and other big aquatic institutions understand the capabilities of the animals under their control. The trainers of these whales even have a personal connection and bond with an animal that can so quickly turn on them and make a typical day at the office a life or death situation. Many of the trainers try not to think about the consequences and hope that their animal will not commit the deadly acts, “When you know the animal and have a relationship with it. You know, that he's not killing, because he's a savage. He's not killing, because he's crazy or because he doesn't know what he's doing. He's killing, because he's frustrated and has aggravation. And when he's... He has no outlet for it.” (Porter) The animals are frustrated and that’s simply it, they want out and the want freedom from the tight enclosures and fake ocean that they unfortunately are forced to call home. 

In the wild orca’s swim in pods, (A group of whales) they hunt together, live together and are one big family. In captivity, they are separated in their own pool of water and are unable to interact with one another as they would in the wild, eventually followed by mental frustration and retaliation. The human interaction is very different in the wild versus in captivity. In captivity, the whales are always around humans, they think of each other as family, but there is one big problem. They aren’t. The whales are trained to do shows and interact with their human trainer, but somedays they, just as many people in today’s world decide they don’t want to work resulting in horrific incidents such as the horrific death of a trainer being tossed around like a rag doll. In the wild, orcas tend to live in colder water areas where there is little to no human interaction except for the occasional whale watching tour. The whales tend to live far offshore from beaches inhabited by the human kind, "They have never killed a human in the wild." (Black) Amazingly, a human has never received death by killer whale in the wild due to less human interaction. This fact itself should be enough to discourage the killer whale as a choice of captive animal. Comparing this to Jurassic World, the animals there also were being held captive, causing many deaths while in captivity. When dinosaurs roamed the earth millions of years ago, they had no human interaction and ran the world free as can be. Many must wonder if god made the dinosaurs extinct so that there would never be any interactions with humans. The captive dinosaurs still contain similar abilities of their ancestors, “You might have made them in a test tube, buy they don't know that. These animals are thinking, "I gotta eat. I gotta hunt. I gotta..." You can relate to at least one of those things.” (Trevorrow) Although Jurassic World is a fiction film, it portrays a lot of the similar issues that are prominent today but in a much larger scale way, in hopes of opening people’s eyes to current situations such as Sea World. Ultimately when evaluating which animals are appropriate for captivity, one must look at the physical abilities and the mental stability of an animal but also provide proper care and living quarters as if they were the animal being cared for.

Many aquatic institutions are not publicly run including Sea World which is owned privately. These institutions commit themselves to research and prosperity of the animals that they hold but there are many speculations. Sea World charges a pricey penny for admission and many wonder, where does the money goes? Unfortunately, the parks are more concerned about profit than the welfare of the animals within. Most institutions must compete with others for business. To do so, many must create something bigger and better than their contenders. The projects require money and the admission price is usually raised to compensate without the business spending anything. In some smaller types of privately owned institutions, some animals may receive less attention or resources because of money needed for a new attraction. In some cases, the money spent on a nice new attraction can be costlier than once anticipated, “Every time we unveiled a new attraction, attendance has spiked.” (Trevorrow) Although in the past a new exhibit has brought more customers which means more money, the new exhibit may take away from other exhibits, and animals, not only attention but also from the animal’s well-being. Greed and profit takes away from the welfare of all animals.

Large animal amusement parks are fun to visit and an incredible experience. However, what’s a great day for a human being might be a terrible life for animal contained within these parks. Blackfish and Jurassic World show how an organisms aggression and mental state directly affect human interaction and how greed and overall profit is more important than the well-being of a living, breathing animal.
