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DELETED = RED
CHANGES = BLUE

Kassandra Ceja
Lynda Haas
Writing 37
February 19, 2015

Blackfishs Use of Pathos Through Graphics, Testimonials and Other

Evidence
Blackfish is a documentary directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite,
who had one question in mind, Why would a highly intelligent animal
attack its trainer in effect, bite the hand that feeds it? The video was
first shown in Sundances 2013 Film Festival. Blackfish portrays the
story of a killer whale that goes by the name of Tilikum. (Blackfish) As
the film progresses the viewer learns Tilikum is known to be the killer
of three people during his time of captivity. In order to understand the
films purpose there are a variety of interviews conducted and
outstanding footage from the many of the incidents. Cowperthwaites
goal is to analyze the creatures extraordinary nature, the killer whales
cruel treatment of the orcas while in captivity, the lives and losses of
the trainers and the pressure which sea-parks encounter. (Blackfish).
Killer whales are the largest of the dolphin species and are know to be
one of the most powerful predators in the world (National Geographic).
Orcas are approximately the size of a bus and have teeth about four
inches long. They are family oriented, usually hunting in groups of

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about 40 family members. (National Geographic). In order to persuade
viewers that whale captivity for the purposes of human entertainment
should not be practiced Blackfish uses pathos, with the help of
graphics, testimonials and other forms of evidence.
The graphics used in Blackfish are inhumane show the inhumane
treatment of the orcas, they strike to the viewer and help then
understand that what is going on with whale captivity should continue
no further. Through out the film the viewer gets to see certain parts of
cases typed on to the screen. Seeing the lies and excuses given by
SeaWorld shows that there is something completely wrong, when
capturing orcas for the purpose of entertainment. At the beginning of
the film there is an animation showing how the families detect when
some of them are about to be captured, so the moms take the small
children north while the males go the opposite direction since they are
aware that they want the young. No matter how hard they try to get
away they are captured. The viewer gets that emotional connection
because the animation shows they have no where were else to go.
,they At that moment the whales are trapped and now its only a
matter of waiting for one of them to be captured. The video captured
orcas in the wild, and swimming freely while this is happening one of
the speakers says the public had superstition and fear til this day
there is no evidence of an orca doing any harm in the wild In addition
to these facts, the clips of the orcas in their natural state creates an

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emotional connection because this illustrates the possible reason to
why the orcas react so negatively when being captive for
entertainment purposes. Not only is there a connection between
seeing the orcas in their natural state, but with the words, knowing
that having the orcas in captivity could be the reason to so many
deaths and incidents, is an eye opener. While at SeaWorld there is a
clip of Tilikum behind a cemented gate, orcas who are trapped in
SeaWorld bite at the gates and concrete, breaking their teeth
(SeaWorld of Hurt) After the death of Dawn, and the two other
victims,one of the trainers and also the incident, which influenced
Cowperthwaite was influenced to investigate, they put Tilikum behind
this gate and that was the only way he would be able to train. This clip
is heart breaking because it is so sad to know knowing that he was
captivated, not only away from the other whales but also from any
type of physical connection, he was all alone. Additionally, the whales
face boredom during captivity, which causes them to gnaw on the
metal gates and attack the other whales. (PETA) Being captivated
leads to unnatural behaviors within the orcas. In the wild, orcas have
strong social bonds that may last for life, when fights do occur, they
can find space to flee. (SeaWorld of Hurt) When in captivity they have
nowhere to go just like the clip shown of the whale Korky being killed
by another whale in his same tank. Seeing all the blood in the tank is
devastating and realizing that the trainers could not do anything about

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it was even worst. In the wild orcas hardly leave their mothers pod,
SeaWorld often separates them. (SeaWorld of Hurt) Considering, one of
the most touching graphics of the film is the part where we see Katina
giving birth and seeing that her baby Kolina was taken from her.
Katina screaming on the edge of the pool when they took her baby
Nothing you could call it besides grief Although the video mentions
many incidents one of the main ones would be the death of Dawn and
seeing he last video working with Tilikum was devastating. That clipped
only followed by the images of parts of Dawns case and parts of
specifics of what had happened.
The viewer is able to get attached and have a connection not
only the whales but with those who had the opportunity to work with
them and the families who had a loved one be part of whale brutality
because of the different testimonials involved in the film. John Crowe, a
man who took part in capturing Tilikum stated it was then that you
understand what your doing kidnapping a kid from their mother I
just started crying Worst think Ive ever done The word kidnapping
is really strong and viewers whom are mothers could obtain that
connection and imagine how it would feel to have their children taken
away from them. Dawns attacker was Tilikums third, his first was
Kelty Burns a championship swimmer who worked as a trainer at
Sealand. Two sisters were witnesses to the incident their reaction to
the aquarium was it was like a swimming pool as mentioned by

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SeaWorld of Hurt, their worlds have been reduced from an expansive
open ocean to gallons in a bathtub, and they are driven insane by their
diminished lives The sisters remember Keltys incident stating it
pulled her under and she would come back up screaming, help me!
Help me! The sisters also indicated that the newspapers said she had
drowned. It is claimed that Tilikums aggression was due to the fact
that Haida, one of the other whales Tilikum was with at Sealand,
established herself as dominant, and Haida and another female orca
pushed young Tilikum around. (Outside Live Bravely) Thereafter, when
Tilikum was moved to SeaWorld the trainers were unaware that Tilikum
had been the killer of the former championship swimmer. Once at
SeaWorld Tilikum had his next attack, Daniel Dukes was found dead
but it was hard to believe that no one had found him that night
especially since there are cameras everywhere. One of the trainers
said Tilikum bit him and cut off his genitals Another tragedy seen by
a killer whale that spent most of its life in Sea World captivity, was that
of Loro Oro Parque, where Alexis, one of the orca trainers is killed. His
fiance and his mother come out in the video. The viewer cannot help
but feel sentimental toward the family his fiance when she claims, all
you could see was his face and his chest had burst There have been
many injuries due to the orcas being captured. An orca smashed a
trainer named John. He was lucky he was wearing his wetsuit, that
was the only think that kept him together. After that incident there

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was another incident of the trainer, Tamery which calmed from another
trainer she was screaming as if she knew she was going to die Ken
Peters was another lucky trainer that skipped fatality as he was pulled
by an orca and was dragged to the bottom. The testimonials help the
viewers views get an that emotional connection to the people peoples
testimonials, talking which may motivate them in order to want to stop
whale captivity.
Blackfish uses facts in order to demonstrate pathos through the
film. It starts with 911 calls, which right aware makes the viewer aware
that something is wrong. There clams to be two incidents one of a
trainer is in the water with whales she is not suppose to be in the water
with then there is another 911 call saying we need responded for a
dead person at SeaWorld the man calling in this fatality has an
emotional voice which the viewer is able to pity. The fact that Dawn
was a senior trainer makes it unreal and even more heartbreaking
because since she is senior it would be expected that she would have
the experience to handle most of what she given. But it was not the
case. One trainer claimed that is could have easily been her, instead of
Dawn. The orcas worlds have been reduced from an open ocean to
gallons in a bathtub, and they are driven insane by their diminished
lives. (SeaWorld of Hurt) In Sealand were Keltys death occurred it was
stated that the whales were captivated in a 20 feet across and 30 feet
deep tank for about 2/3 of their lives. During the winter they would be

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in there from 5 at night to 7 in the morning. At a certain point this
became difficult to do because the whales were getting bigger and
would refuse to get inside so the trainers were forced to make them
starve during the day and use food to bribe them to get inside with
food. The facts and clips are evident to make the viewers want to act
by not participating or attending Animal entertainment centers. To the
viewers this would make them want to act because of the facts and the
clips. This also claims to be a reason to why Tilikum had his first attack
in the first place. Age is another important factor in demonstrating why
whales should not be in captivity. As stated by one of the experts in
Blackfish a killer whales life span is similar to that of a human. Females
are expected to live about to 100 and men from 50-60 years. SeaWorld
employees covered these life range facts because their whales had a
very small life span. Because they die early under their care they lie
and say they live 25-35 years Its not surprising that these captive
animals do not live as long as their wild cousins. (SeaWorld of Hurt)
Another important fact mentioned in the video would be that of
Tilikums fin. SeaWorld employees claimed that 25% of whales have a
flopped fin because of age when the truth is that less the 1% of killer
whales in the wild have a flipped fin. All captive adult male orcas have
collapsed dorsal fins, because they have no space to swim freely and
are fed an unnatural diet of thawed dead fish. (SeaWorld of Hurt) These
facts are devastating to hear especially since they are health related

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issues. Since health is involved this may increase someones
motivation to help orcas in captivity. and knowing these are all due to
the fact that the whales are in captivity makes the viewer want to take
action to change this.
Today, there are 42 orcas living in captivity and SeaWorld owns
26 of them; over the years more than 130 have died in captivity.
(Outside Live Bravely) Blackfish used pathos in order to persuade the
viewers that having whales in captivity is not only torturous to them
but could also be life threatening to humans. The intelligent, social
ocean animals kept in the pitifully small tanks at SeaWorld are denied
everything that is natural and important to them. (Outside Live
Bravely)

Work Cited
"Synopsis."BlackfishOfficialFilmSite.N.p.,n.d.Web.12Feb.2015.
http://blackfishmovie.com/about
"KillerWhales(Orcas),KillerWhalePictures,KillerWhaleFactsNationalGeographic."
NationalGeographic.N.p.,n.d.Web.19Feb.2015.
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/killer-whale/
"AboutPETA'sCampaignAgainstSeaWorld|SeaWorldofHurt."SeaWorldofHurt.N.p.,n.d.
Web.21Feb.2015.
http://www.seaworldofhurt.com/about/
"HelpAnimalsImprisonedbySeaWorld."N.p.,n.d.Web.19Feb.2015.

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https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?
cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2945
"TheKillerinthePool."OutsideOnline.N.p.,n.d.Web.19Feb.2015.
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/The-Killer-in-thePool.html?page=all
"8ReasonsOrcasDon'tBelongatSeaWorldSeaWorldofHurt."SeaWorldofHurt.N.p.,n.d.
Web.18Feb.2015.
http://www.seaworldofhurt.com/features/8-reasons-orcas-dont-belongseaworld/