Stupid Guest Tricks

Another story from my blog....

First, let me start with some history here. Back when the film “Free Willy” came out, the animal activists came out to the theme parks in droves (flocks, pods?). Groups like PETA came out to protest animal exhibits in general, and well meaning animal lovers began to protest the treatment of the animals within those exhibits. At that time, there was a rumor going around that Disney had dolphins that they kept out of guest view. There was semi-truth to the rumor. Disney DID have dolphins in their Living Seas Coral Reef exhibit at Epcot. And much of the time, those dolphins were out of guest view, but by their choice not Disney’s. The reef was specifically built with a viewable area and a back area, giving the animals within choice of swimming out into the area where guests could view them. With the dolphins, specific feeding times were implemented to entice the dolphins out into the viewing area periodically during the day. During this time of heightened animal activism, though, the rumormongers speculated that Disney in fact had the dolphins hidden from view deliberately for diabolical reasons, and lured them out to give the guests a false sense of security around the animal’s well-being. This was not true!

Now onto the story! I was working the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground area on a busy day. Our break area was shared with the cast members who worked what was then the walking tour through the soundstages and production areas of the studios. This tour began at a special effects water tank where they demonstrated how ocean battles and explosions are filmed (which is now incorporated into the shuttle tour). It was behind this tank that our break room existed. The door out into the park from behind the water tank let out in the middle of what was the queue area for the tour.

On the day in question, the tour had a full queue, which stretched out well past the backstage access door. I was leaving the break area to head back to the playground when a gentleman stopped me to ask a question.

“Why won’t you let us see what’s back there?” he demanded.

“I’m sorry, sir.” I apologized. “It’s just a break area. You’ll see the water tank when you get through the line.”

“I know that’s where you’re hiding the dolphins!” he insisted. “That’s what you don’t want us to see back there! What are you doing to them that you won’t let us see them?!”

I briefly explained about the Epcot dolphins, and assured him that the water tank would be visible once he completed the line and began the tour. I then wished him a magical day and headed to my attraction. Secretly, though, I wished that a tour had been going on at the time. A well-timed explosion in the water tank would have prompted me to retort, “But don’t order tuna in the park today!”

So much for me taking animal activism seriously!

*No dolphins or tunas were harmed in the typing of this blog!

I'm not terribly thrilled with animals in captivity (seeing them pacing relentlessly back and forth in inadequate cages really bothers me), but I have to say that AK at Disney is one of the best captive situations I have ever seen. After visiting AK, I could no longer stomach Brookfield Zoo (at the time I still lived in Chicago). Funny how people worry about places with the best treatment and don't focus their efforts a little more carefully on the zoos, roadside attractions, etc. that really are abusive.

I was just at Brookfield this summer, and I'll be darned if I actually SAW any animals! Well, we saw tons of cicadas, but not too much else!

What do you mean that the seafood served at Disney is not from dolpins and sea critters in secret underground warehouses?

PETA does some good but is too heavy on dramatics, sweepstakes, celebrity endorsements, shocking people with their videos and a lot of other crap. Disney knows that it makes the money off of spinning everyday attractions into educational fun. They do have stories on the internet about how they killed rare shorebirds but that is another PETA story to discuss later/

They probably all freaked out on the land when they take you through the fishery and talk about the food raised at epcot is fed to the guests.

http://www.thatvideosite.com/view/709.html

Game, set and match. It's around 15:00 long, but it is well worth watching. It exposes PETA for the hypocritical douche bags that they truly are. The part about Mary Beth Sweetland is my favorite. There are SO many people that give money to PETA that have no idea who and what this company and many of it's employees support and condone. I love animals, which I am MORE than capable of doing without liking PETA.

Yeah, I'm not a big PETA fan myself! When I worked as Baby Shamu at Sea World, we had guards that watched over us in the days after Free Willy came out. We were concerned that some PETA freak would come throw paint on us or something (at best, at worst we were afraid they'd actually injure us by chucking us in the water or hurting us to prove a point!).

ktulu wrote:They probably all freaked out on the land when they take you through the fishery and talk about the food raised at epcot is fed to the guests.

ROFL!!! As much as I love animals, Mr. Syndrome always has to wipe the drool off my chin when we pass the tilapia in the aqua cell on that boat ride.

I read or saw or heard someone a couple of months ago who was saying that PETA manages to make people deaf to a really good message by delivering the message badly. Without getting into anything else, I agree with that. I love animals, I'm a vegetarian for that reason (well, that and conservation of our species which I will explain via PM if anyone cares to ask me) and I also avoid things like rBGH and other chemicals which are not only bad for animals, but can get into milk and are slowly sickening our country. I believe that Disney is by far the best in terms of keeping animals in a fair and humane way. I recently went to the national zoo as a tourist (I didn't look at it the same way while I was working there--tech, not animals though--I never looked at the exhibits while I worked there) and was truly disappointed. Also, I like that Disney has ways of keeping people from being stupid with the animals. I told some people off at the national zoo for feeding the animals (right in front of a huge sign that said "Don't feed the animals" ) and when I turned around, I was kinda expecting people to support me (maybe somebody could have said "nice job" or something). Instead, everyone was eyeing me down, pissed that I just ruined their fun watching the idiot foreigners (latinos who spoke no english...one of the kids translated) feed the monkeys.

I do miss having my morning coffee with the cheetahs, though. My office was just around the corner from them, so I'd stand at their fence and talk to them quietly and they'd come close and hang out. They'd stay close as long as I was around and talking soothingly. As soon as the first tourist showed up with a screaming kid, though, the cheetahs would go hide behind some logs, and I'd go hide in my office! :D:

Edited to add: I also take my dog outside without a leash in unfenced areas. My dog stays with me because she likes me, not because I force her to! The only dogs who run away are dogs who have never known freedom...or dogs who hate their owners!

ITA about PETA. I really like some of the things that they do, like a mobile spay/neuter van for low income neighborhoods, providing dog houses to dogs chained outside, pushing for humane farming methods of animals (reality is that people are gonna eat 'em, so I support making their lives up to that point as decent as possible), etc. I cringe when they do things like put out pamphlets stating "Your Mother Abuses Animals" (I think that one was aimed at fur wearers) and getting on silly, one-issue crusades. It dilutes the message in a bad way and weakens the support they could get for the worthwhile programs. I have donated to things like their spay/neuter program, and I wish they would channel their resources more to things like that.