SeaWorld Entertainment Inc chief executive officer Jim Atchison responded to the controversy over his company’s treatment of killer whales, sparked by the documentary, Blackfish, that ran in theaters and on CNN.
SeaWorld, the Orlando, Florida-based theme park operator, published full-page advertisements in eight newspapers yesterday firing back at “inaccurate reports” about the company and its animal performers.
The ads defended its treatment of the whales, the marquee performers at its namesake properties.
Blackfish was purchased in January by CNN Films and Magnolia Pictures. CNN, part of Time Warner Inc, held a TV premiere of the film in October and has run related segments before and after the initial air date.
“It firmly crosses the line of what you would expect from a news organization,” Atchison said yesterday in a telephone interview. “They are leveraging the imprimatur of a news agency for what really, clearly is another business venture of theirs, which is buying and marketing films.”
The network stood by its handling of the film.
“CNN made continued offers to SeaWorld to appear in conjunction with our coverage, and always disclosed our connection to the film in our reporting,” the network said in a statement.
SeaWorld’s ad is an open letter from the company’s zoological team, and a response to an online boycott campaign that led artists, including Willie Nelson and Cheap Trick, to cancel appearances next year at the Orlando park.
“The men and women of SeaWorld are true animal advocates,” the team said in the letter.
“We are the 1,500 scientists, researchers, veterinarians, trainers, marine biologists, aquarists, aviculturists, educators and conservationists who have dedicated our lives to the animals in our care, as well as those in the wild that are injured, ill or orphaned,” it added.
Blackfish, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, argues killer whales should not be held in captivity and that SeaWorld ignored warnings of the danger to handlers.
The film is “a story about the consequences of captivity for these animals that have thrilled millions in performances, but lead a much darker existence when the show is over,” a CNN release issued in October said.
Cowperthwaite said the CNN airing was crucial to reaching a wider audience.
Blackfish has been mentioned in press accounts as a possible contender for an Academy Award in the documentary film category.
Nominations will be released on Jan. 16.
“I’ll defer to the Academy folks as to what they pick,” Atchison said. “The film is a misleading bit of animal rights propaganda and I would not consider it a documentary worth watching.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not