The Gist: Good afternoon VegNews Book Clubbers, and welcome to the last week of the VegNews Book Club, in which we are discussing Fear of the Animal Planet by Jason Hribal. This was a unique book, and I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did.
We read the rest of the book for this week's discussion, which talked about sea mammals in captivity, including seals, dolphins, and orca whales, also referred to as Killer Whales. The stories pretty much went the same way as the previous stories in the book, in which these animal tried to escape, or if escape was not possible, they attacked. The different attacks depicted were mainly from the dolphins and the orca whales. What fascinated me the most about these attacks, which sometimes even lead to the death of trainers, is that attacks like these are usually not publicized. Sea World is such a big and wealthy corporation, that it has the ability to keep these instances quiet, even though they should be known. Especially the story about Tilikum, who grabbed the trainer from outside the pool into the water, and after shaking her quite violently, held her at the bottom of the pool until she drowned. This was not an isolated incident, showing that these types of attacks are not accidents, but instead are the animals' way of saying that they want their freedom. I think they are making their message clear, but the owners of these major tourist industries either don't want to listen, or are too greedy to listen.
The Discussion: Here are two discussion points to help get the conversation started. I look forward to hearing from you!
1. What chapter in the book most interested you? What story was the most captivating, and really showed you that these animals' are trying to tell us something?
1. What chapter in the book most interested you? What story was the most captivating, and really showed you that these animals' are trying to tell us something?
2. Do you think it is greed or arrogance that keep the owners of parks like Sea World buying wild sea animals to perform in front of large audiences?
The Assignment: Enjoy more great reads during the summer months! Check out some good ones here.
~VN Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig
I'm sorry that I can't comment on this book as I have only recently discovered this book club. I would like to know if there are any plans to continue the book club at a later time?
ReplyDeleteHi there! Thanks so much for joining us. We've had a wonderful year discussing compelling vegetarian-related books, and we may very well do it again in the future. We've decided to focus our resources on some other projects that we hope you'll find equally engaging. Thanks again for your interest!
ReplyDelete~VegNews Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig
I found it fascinating how these attacks, sometimes even fatal, are often kept quiet by powerful corporations like Sea World.
ReplyDelete