‘China: Caging the Ocean’s Wild’ and other documentaries that haunt me
Two-minute read
I can watch just about anything. There’s no horror too scary. No ghost story too spooky. No murder too gruesome. One of the only things that gets to me is animal cruelty. I can’t joke about it and I don’t like to see it if I can help it. This applies a millionfold to dolphins.
Here’s the thing, though. I had to watch a lot of footage of animal cruelty in order to research this podcast. Part of my motivation was relieving you all of the task of watching these documentaries for yourself by giving you the important bullet points.
But the morbidly curious among you might want to know my entire visual bibliography so they can watch it too. I get it. I sought out the movie Cannibal Holocaust after it came up in the snuff films episode of the brilliant podcast You’re Wrong About.
Please proceed with caution, some of these are extremely upsetting.
China: Caging the Ocean’s Wild
As I mentioned in the show, I could not finish this documentary. It defeated me after eight minutes, which is a third of the short 24-minute runtime. It’s about the rising craze for dolphinariums in China, and features secretly-filmed footage exposing the terrible conditions the animals face behind closed doors.
Free Willy
I know this isn’t a documentary, but since the whale star really was released into the wild there’s a lot of emotion tied up in it for me. It was horrible to see Keiko’s tiny pool and his collapsed fin. It’s crazy to me that this is a film aimed at children, and even more so that my entire generation saw it and yet orca captivity continues this minute.
Blackfish
I saw Blackfish in 2013, the same year I gave up dolphin training for good. It’s a difficult watch because it it focuses on both human and animal suffering. I would recommend it to anybody, though. It’s one of the best documentaries I have ever seen, and watching documentaries is basically all I do.
Seaspiracy
This Netflix production has an extremely important and hard-hitting message - we’re doing fishing wrong. The creator of Seaspiracy, Ali Tabrizi, set out to make a film about how bad plastic is for the ocean. Instead, he found industrial fishing to be far more damaging by every recordable metric. There’s footage of dolphin hunts, which is awful, but it’s very brief. On balance, it’s worth watching for the information alone.
The Cove
Don’t watch The Cove. You won’t like it. I hated it. It shows long, extended sequences of real dolphin slaughter. We see the animals suffering and dying. Once again, the message is what’s important. That’s why I watched The Cove in the first place, so I could pass the facts on to you in episode nine to save you the mental imagery. But if you want the mental scars, be my guest.
The Last Dolphin King
I had to tap out of this one 10 minutes before the end, and had to close my eyes for certain scenes. If you want to know what dolphin captivity is really like behind the scenes, watch this documentary. They show animals in transit, receiving forced medical care and being physically abused by ‘dolphin king’ José Luis Barbero.
This was the hardest watch for me because I understand how terrified captive dolphins are. But hopefully, if you’ve listened to A Dolphin Pod you get it too. And if you’re still in doubt, watch The Last Dolphin King. Just keep a bucket nearby, because what you’ll see is truly disgusting.
Slave to Entertainment
Full disclosure - I have not seen this. But if for some reason, you want to see more orcas suffering in captivity try this documentary about Lolita. She spent 52 years in captivity, none of which appeared to be happy ones. I talk about her at length on A Dolphin Pod but if you want to watch her story for yourself, go ahead.
