The Hot Topic: Will You Take Your Kids To SeaWorld?

 Full disclosure: I worked at SeaWorld San Diego for seven years, for the park's Education Department. That means I spent my days talking to tourists about sea critters. Want to know about countercurrent heat exchange and how it enables a shark to maintain the correct body temperature? Or how a sea star eats? Or how long a seal can hold its breath? I'm your man. It also means that I've forgotten more about orcinus orca than most people will ever know. Even got to pet one once. (They feel like a wet inner tube. And yes, I still have that arm.) Working there was a blast - I got to hand-feed penguins, help give a stranded baby common dolphin a shot, and do lots of other cool stuff. I also gained a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for the park's staff of animal care and training specialists; they're highly educated, highly trained professionals who are committed to providing the best possible care for the animals in their charge. (More disclosure: that's not me in the picture. I've been closer than that to dolphins and sea lions while surfing, but never that close to a killer whale, and I gotta say, I'm jealous of that dude.)

Of course, the SeaWorld parks are under fire after one of the trainers at the Orlando location was killed by a killer whale yesterday. This hit home: my former roommate and one of my best friends is a killer whale trainer at the San Diego park, and when I heard the news yesterday I immediately wondered if the trainer who died was someone we knew. It raised a lot of unsettling questions: we have been to the park a few times, and as a former employee with friends who still work with the animals, my kids have gotten to know and love the park in much the same way that I did. Do I tell Lucas about the accident, knowing full well that he'll worry about our Shamu Trainer friend who's earned the five-year-old honorific "Uncle" (sorry, won't name names here)? Do I talk to him about my own mixed feelings about animals in zoos and aquariums? 

What's your take on this? Are places like SeaWorld good for kids, giving them the chance to see and experience animals in ways that make them real and tangible, not just pictures in a book or on a screen? Or does SeaWorld send the wrong message about our place in the world and our relationships with the other animals that inhabit it? Comment away!