I'll say first, SeaWorld tends not to be my 'favorite' place -- I've had friends who worked there and I really don't approve of how they keep their orca whales (Shamu) - they don't give them sufficient room/exercise .... but I do know they've tried to rectify that and they are branching out into more rehab/rescue.
HOWEVER -- put that thot on hold.
We went today (driving rain, supposed to see Creedence Clearwater in concert [the young folks all said "whooo???"} but all of them got 'sick' and they cancelled the concert after we'd waited in the rain for 2 hours). Sooooo, David and I decided not to 'waste' the day but to take in a few of the shows and things. We just happened to duck into a show called "Pets Ahoy" -- knew nothing about it ... just got there at the right time.
IT WAS GREAT!!!
Tried (and was successful) to be pretty 'cutsie' -- set was a small seaside "town" -- the radio station "WOOF" and there was a vet "S.I.Katz, dvm" (*rolling eyes*) but I could see an absolute plethera of small doors all over the place where animals would obviously go 'in and out'. I counted 58 'doors' and I thot "Hmm must be a 'busy' show!!"
The vast majority of it was done with NO humans at all on stage. Started out with a little black and white rat that was supposed to run across the stage (he made a false start and the handler did come out ... grin and say "oops -- take TWO!!". And the rest of it was (or appeared to be) flawless!!
All trained behaviors -- dogs (everything from an older Harlequin Dane to an aussie cattle dog, wolfhound mix, 5 doxies running out of a 'hot dog' wagon, English bulldog, shih tzu and a bunch of white, black, brown & whatever "mixes";), THEN a multitude of cats, 3-4 ducks, some doves, a quaker parrot, and even a pot bellied pig (probably a 300 pounder)
One Aussie 'held' one end of a jump rope while a trainer 'turned' it while a jack russell jumped rope, literally all sorts of tricks and behaviors -- many involving 'enemy' species following one after another and yet obviously NOT truly 'chasing' or being predatory.
On a few occasions when there was a human present on stage you saw a treat slipped to an animal -- but TONS of verbal praise (for all species) and you could hear "GOOD job" and "WELL DONE!!" being spoken from backstage. And yeah, the animals were enjoying the applause and input from the audience. A couple of times -- one notably a cat who appeared a bit hesitant to climb something, but who ... after looking at the audience kind of just turned around and proceeded almost like it was 'planned'.
Some of the behaviors were simply turning a head (to make it look like they were all 'looking' in the same direction) and some were very complicated behaviiors (one dog ran the full length of "town" pulling probably 5-6 ropes/levers to 'open' the signs for the shops) and some were simply behaviors that involved going from here to 'there' but with NO HUMAN present at all.
All this in front of an entire audience that included children and tons of noise.
At the end -- MY FAVORITE - quite a lengthly description and a wee movie telling that ***all*** these animals had been adopted from Orange, Polk, and Osceola SPCA and Animal Controls -- that they all got daily vet care and were, in all respects like any pet you or I might go adopt -- but stressed that they were ALL rescues (including the rat and pig) and your local shelter may well have more than just a dog or cat.
Many were purebred ... many were obviously NOT. But frankly, they were all having a blast. No scared animals -- and even the rat who initially screwed up, was allowed to 'try again' (and he did it just fine the 2d time).
But it ended with a huge plea that the "next time you think to adopt a pet, please please please GO TO YOUR SHELTER -- the SPCA, animal control, or even breed or species rescue -- but PLEASE rescue a pet!!! Then even better, they encouraged people that all these animals had simply been trained to do pretty simple tasks and to please look into training for your own dog and cat because you CAN train them if you want to.
I was completely tickled. I was thrilled that there was such emphasis on rescue AND all these animals were completely 'free' and yet were operating without a human in close proximity. It was THE best advertisement for "training your dog" I've ever seen. Each animal was then 'introduced' at the end and they brought many of each species out at the end to 'take a bow'. Then a few were allowed, with a trainer, to be petted by anyone in the crowd (that was super carefully supervised - I watched several of those interactions and it was truly well done!!)
Frankly, I didn't expect it out of SeaWorld. The've got many interactive exhibits -- one with the manta rays and one with dolphins where you can feed them and touch them -- but with a LOT of close supervision and a lot of training that is done OF THE HUMANS on how to approach the animals and ... frankly, how NOT to. I was impressed -- a lot of care with feeding the porpoises that they make sure anyone feeding them doesn't leave the paper tray containing the fish too close to where a porpoise can just snag it -- they were very kind and appropriate about how they approached the public but it was obvious they were trying to protect the animals.
Yes, I think there is some definite room for improvement, and yes, they are out to make money. But they're also doing a lot of good things to raise awareness and teach the public
I know there have been various threads recently about people planning trips -- I tend not to always recommend Disney and Universal -- there are other things in Central Florida which can be gentler to the pocketbook and equally as superb.
But altho dogs probably dominated the pet show -- all species were benefiting. It was FUN.