SACRAMENTO (Press Release) – California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) made the following statement about Assembly Bill 2140 by Richard Bloom in anticipation of the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife’s consideration of the bill on Tuesday morning:
“Upon learning a few weeks ago that Assemblyman Bloom would be authoring Assembly Bill 2140, I told the media that I was inclined to support his proposal. Since then, I have studied the issue carefully and consulted with many experts involved in the debate – including representatives from SeaWorld and independent experts in the field – in hopes of understanding the landmark changes Mr. Bloom is hoping to accomplish with A.B. 2140.
“Barring any new information that could change my mind tomorrow, I plan to strongly support A.B. 2140 and vote to bring an end to the practice of holding orcas in captivity solely for entertainment purposes in California. As a longtime advocate for the environment and for worker safety, I am greatly concerned by the practice of confining orcas’ living environments, sequestering them from their natural social organizations, forcing them to perform circus tricks for huge profits, and endangering the well-being of employees by putting them in hazardous situations. Of these, I’m most familiar with the attempts by the local operator of orca shows to oppose measures to increase worker safety and that unfortunately doesn’t bode well for their credibility on the other issues raised by A.B. 2140.
“SeaWorld’s most compelling arguments to continue the performance of captive orcas for entertainment purposes have been economic in nature. The reason to carry on with these dangerous orca performances, SeaWorld says, is because they generate profits.
“To those who oppose this legislation, I take no satisfaction in making two predictions: First—you on the wrong side of history, and that within my lifetime this indefensible practice will be outlawed. Second – tragically, another employee will be hurt or killed by a distressed orca, and predictably, management will blame the victim and call it ‘trainer error.’ Neither of those facts can be justified by profits.”
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Preceding provided by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez
I love Jewish stories but some I am seeing are embarrassing examples of some Jewish people using the insidious, obscenely fanatical Animal Rights/Liberation movement to further line their own coffers, or as in this case perhaps make a political name for themselves, by joining in and exploiting this cult-like group’s ruthless, sadistic tormenting, scandalizing, harassing, threatening, and vicious persecuting of those who work with animals for their living.
Often these hate campaigns are aimed directly at fellow Jews, such as the Israeli owners and drivers of carriage horses in New York City, and the Feld family, owners of Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus.
One might notice the primary targets are our most visible, popular, highly publicized, iconic and beloved traditions–those known and appreciated the world over precisely for their loving care and exemplary stewarding of the animals they cherish and openly share. Somehow in the growth of this upside down, perverted Animal Rights/Liberation movement, the most highly regulated and finest examples of respect, compassion, love and commitment have become fashionable objects of vigilante hate mongering and efforts to annihilate them. All this while hidden and potentially dangerous, true abusers go unmolested; their suffering animals helpless and unprotected.
But there isn’t much point in scandalizing someone no one thinks about or knows. There’s no footage to doctor; no history and facts to twist. There is nothing stunningly shocking to bring it to the front page–no advertising and promotion to hijack with outrageous exhibitionist antics like bodily trying to stop a parade. Most importantly, it doesn’t present the potential as a cash cow for donations, or a big public stage for moral posturing like the chance to turn a mainstream household name into something dark, coldly mercenary and secretly demonic.
I don’t know Mr. Bloom; perhaps he is a victim too; alarmed by the sheer numbers of people protesting and overwhelmed by all the highly melodramatic, hysterical catastrophizing; all in the very same language, I’ll wager nearly verbatim. Perhaps somewhere in the back of his mind is a nagging question the message they are sending does not fit what he sees with his own eyes. But who would make such drastic accusations of someone so normal and respected if they weren’t true? And maybe all that awfulizing has made him worry all those people petitioning will call him to task for not having “evolved” as they have if he doesn’t try to do something.
But I am wondering when we came to base some ethical evolution on trite copy/pasted phrases; wild, ghoulish, graphically violent allegations, undocumented photos, YouTube videos, and the manipulative cinematography of a largely fictional movie disguised as a documentary.
And I am wondering when we stopped believing and respecting earnest, educated, experienced, productive people making sincere efforts to be open, allay fears, and provide accurate information and perspective, as SeaWorld is certainly doing.
And I am wondering why the earning of profit and success in business has become a weapon to be used to discredit and demoralize anyone with an enterprise that involves animals.
And I am wondering when it became so easy to be willing to severely penalize, handicap and seek to destroy a long-standing contributor to the well-being and prosperity of an entire city, a major participant in highly specialized and skilled rescue, education and conservation, and a destination offering some of the world’s most wholesome opportunities for family enrichment and bonding.
And most of all I am wondering how people who should know the true horrors of human slavery and the terrors of the holocaust could compare them to animals in loving human care. These are the pointed accusations made directly by the organizations at the core of the Animal Rights/Animal Liberation movement and repeated blindly and mechanically by their followers. This smacks of bigotry and anti-Semitism; the vulgar, provocative, deliberate trivializing of unbearable loss and unspeakable human suffering by equating what was done then to the lives of well fed, pampered animals, bred, trained and presented in caring ways for entertainment, education and inspiration.
How will our youth and our future generations know and understand the true meaning of slavery, the holocaust and genocide when this is the frame of reference they are being given?
I am not proud of Mr. Bloom’s attempt to display his compassion for animals. I’m alarmed someone who has accepted civic responsibility would make such a bold, reckless, knee-jerk step to put those animals and a valuable, vital attraction at such great jeopardy. It is beyond any measure of stability and reason to impose the judgments of known radical extremists on the citizens and youth of his state, our country, and SeaWorld’s enthusiasts all around the globe. Or to disregard and disrespect the knowledge of one of the world’s most experienced group of professionals in favor or those speaking from nowhere deeper than their emotions.
It seems a very unwise way to govern; to rush to grandstand, seek to make dramatic changes to the lives and security of citizens and animals, and set dangerous, poorly thought out precedents in response to an immature, grossly misguided, maliciously antagonistic faddish Twitter and Facebook pastime. I also question how many of those petition signatures were not only duplicates under false names, but were from people in the Animal Rights global network, often very young and easily influenced, who have never stepped foot in a SeaWorld or even had any concept of it before the release of a movie already illustrated to be deceptive.
The various attack campaigns of the Animal Rightists are characterized by very distinct buzzwords. This makes it easy to spot when someone’s “opinion” is merely a reciting and not borne of original thinking or authentic knowledge. When we start hearing from our lawmakers we “on the wrong side of history”, and should have “evolved” beyond taking a carriage ride, seeing Shamu, going to the circus or eating a burger, we have reason to be alarmed.
I hope Mr. Bloom understands that governing according to the most strident tweets Facebook posts is not evolution either.