A Captive Audience

Should an orca whale be the first non-human person to be granted habeas corpus? We think so.

Dr. Jeffrey Ventre is a former orca trainer now turned anti-captivity activist. He joins Coup Save America today to talk about his feature role in the documentary Blackfish, a film that swayed public opinion about using marine mammal as performers for profit. Sean and Jeff compare stories about working for SeaWorld and talk about how they both bought into the company narrative about keeping orca whales in captivity. Jeff gives examples of the erratic behavior often displayed by captive orcas, and aggression which has on several occasions ended with the tragic death of a human. We hear the inside story of Dawn Brancheau, Tilikum the orca, and SeaWorld's lies and cover-ups. Jeff and Sean discuss the intelligence of orcas, how young whales were kidnapped from their pods for human entertainment, and what steps are necessary to get orcas out of captivity and into whale sanctuaries. Jeff hopes everyone will go to Amazon.com to watch the new documentary film, "Corky", about the longest living wildcaught orca still held in captivity, and he invites our audience to visit YouTube for recordings of past speeches given at his annual Super Pod gatherings in the San Juan Islands.

Other topics include: Ken Balcomb, how the Avatar sequel is in conflict with marine mammal rights, the evils of river dams, how covid-19 lockdowns compare to keeping orcas in captivity, the American war machine, plus ample discussion on the benefits of Medicare for All.