We've been domesticating animals for how long now??
Why is a dog any different than a whale? because there's more of them? Because it can fit into your lap? I swear people turn into PETA the minute a "wild" animal becomes headlines. But they still see no problem with having a pet at home. At one point in time dogs and cats were wild animals and took thousands of years to get them to the point they are now. Want to talk about larger animals, several easter nations use "domesticated" elephants and camels as a way of getting around. We use horses.
Great Points.
People seem to forget too that 90% of Seaworlds whales were born in captivity. The others were caught in the wild by other parks and seaworld rescued them from poor conditions in those parks (Tilly for example) I think there are 2 out of the 20 or so that were caught by Seaworld in the wild. But that was in the 1970s when we were first learning about these animals. If Seaworld today still went out and captured these animals, my opinion may be different. But because they were born in captivity, I say leave them in captivity. They get the best vet care, 24/7 attention, plenty of exercise, etc.