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Ever
seen Letterman's Stupid Pet Tricks? Well we got him
beat with our Sea Lion show.
Watch these beautiful animals make complete fools
of themselves under the hot Florida sun. A little
food deprivation and our sea lions will be eating
right out of our hands...literally. In the wild sea
lions hunt for their own food, but here at the Seaquarium
we make them earn their meals. And guess what, if
they don't perform up to par, the whistle isn't blown,
and they don't get the fish. When
they aren't performing we have these great cages in
the back where they can relax and play in their nice
concrete environment and chlorinated pool.
In the wild California
sea lions, as their name suggests, are found off the
coasts of California, Vancouver Island, British Columbia,
and Mexico. An adult male can reach a huge 1,000lbs
in weight and 7 feet in length. Adult females can
grow to 350lbs and 6 feet in length.
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Trainer Patricia Doty doesn't
care much for the sea lion show anymore. She trained
the Miami Seaquarium Sea Lions for 2 years but
quit in 1993. She says park officials spent money
on customer service before spending it on animals.
"We had paint chips pealing off the walls
in the pools and they were redoing the cafeteria."
<VIDEO>
Med pool and sea lion cells. |
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In
August 2002 five California Sea Lions were electrocuted
at the Seaquarium during Hurricane Andrew.
July 13th 1995 Max the 8-year-old male California
Sea Lion was placed in pool with another male
named Chilton. One week later Max suffered a
severe laceration to his anus. He was operated
on but never fully recovered from the anesthesia.
Max died soon after. Seaquarium Vet Michael
Renner diagnosed the death as acute renal failure.
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A
lethargic sea lion pines away in a Seaquarium
holding cell in-between performances.
He looks like a worn out old rock star.
But,
unlike rock stars, sea lions get very
little attention backstage and no stimulation,
especially old performers like this one
who's on his way out. Worked to death:
Do you think the Seaquarium will hang
a plaque in this animal's honor? Highly
unlikely. Hugo who?
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"It
is in my opinion that George Boucher is a very
good manager who has the park's best
interest in mind." Joan Caron (former
Seaquarium Head Trainer) said under oath to
APHIS investigators. November 11th, 1995
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You
must understand, in parks like the The Miami
Seaquarium, customer care is far more important
than animal care. It doesn't matter whether
the animals are happy, but if the customers
are unhappy, we'd be giving quite a few refunds
now wouldn't we?
Sure
we lose a lot of animals with this mentality.
Hell, we lose animals all the time. They die
of stress, depression, mental illness, and disease.
But we have this great captive breeding program.
Check out the figures.
We manufacture our own performing Sea Lions.
We never run out.
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