Death at Seaworld
Author(s): David Kirby
Death at SeaWorld centres on the battle with the multimillion-dollar marine park industry over the controversial and even lethal ramifications of keeping killer whales in captivity. Following the story of marine biologist and animal advocate at the Humane Society of the US, Naomi Rose, Kirby tells the gripping story of the two-decade fight against PR-savvy SeaWorld, which came to a head with the tragic death of trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010. Kirby puts that horrific animal-on-human attack in context. Brancheau's death was the most publicized among several brutal attacks that have occurred at Sea World and other marine mammal theme parks. Death at SeaWorld introduces real people taking part in this debate, from former trainers turned animal rights activists to the men and women that champion SeaWorld and the captivity of whales. In section two the orcas act out. And as the story progresses and orca attacks on trainers become increasingly violent, the warnings of Naomi Rose and other scientists fall on deaf ears, only to be realized with the death of Dawn Brancheau.
Finally he covers the media backlash, the eyewitnesses who come forward to challenge SeaWorld's glossy image, and the groundbreaking OSHA case that challenges the very idea of keeping killer whales in captivity and may spell the end of having trainers in the water with the ocean's top predators.
General Information
- :
- : St Martin's Press
- : St Martin's Press
- : 0.68
- : 03 October 2012
- : United States
- : books
Other Specifications
- : David Kirby
- : Hardback
- : 599.536
- : 480
More About The Product
"Kirby makes a passionate case for captivity as the reason orcas become killers (and) tells the story like a thriller... We probably can't free the orcas in captivity today, but we could make the current group of captive killer whales the last." "--Wall Street Journal""""A chilling depiction... Kirby lays out a compelling scientific argument against killer whale captivity"-"New Scientist""A gripping inspection... Hard to put down.""--Booklist" (***Starred Review) "Brilliantly and intensively researched and conveyed with clarity and thoughtfulness, Kirby's work of high-quality non-fiction busts the whale debate wide open... Reads like a thriller and horrifies like Hannibal Lector." --San Francisco Book Review - FIVE STARS"Kirby places this much-publicized tragic incident within the context of decades of warnings by marine biologists and animal advocates about the risks of keeping these giant predators in captivity. A real-life scientific thriller." "--"Barnes and Noble"As David Kirby so eloquently documents in this timely work, killer-whale captivity only benefits the captors. It is impossible to read 'Death at SeaWorld' and come to any other conclusion." - Jane Goodall, Ph.D., D.B.E., Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger of Peace"Entertaining, engaging and enraging - The fairy tale fantasy that the captivity marine mammal industry has spun for the unwary public is expertly unraveled in this non-fiction crime thriller." - Louie Psihoyos, Academy Award winning director of "The Cove ""In this authoritative and superbly investigative page-turner, certain to ruffle feathers and fins, David Kirby ... reports brilliantly on the escalating troubles and conflicts, the surprising and sordid underbelly of life -- and death -- at SeaWorld."- Erich Hoyt, author of the best-selling classic "Orca: The Whale Called Killer"""Death at SeaWorld" is one of the most important books, if not the most important book, e
DAVID KIRBY is the author of "Evidence of Harm," which was a "New York Times" bestseller, winner of the 2005 Investigative Reporters and Editors award for best book, and a finalist for the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism, and "Animal Factory," an acclaimed investigation into the environmental impact of factory farms. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
