(As someone whose own book on dolphins has been recently censored by Smashwords, I can relate to this story. I for one can't wait to read "Death at SeaWorld." -- Moderator MJB)
(The Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Banning Books in the 21st Century: Is "Death At SeaWorld" Too Revealing?
Candace Calloway Whiting
For some reason there continues to be an effort to ban author David Kirby's new book, Death At SeaWorld.
The forthcoming book is reputed to examine both the risk to humans and the viability of keeping whales in captivity. By all accounts the book is well researched and documented, and although it focuses on the deaths of trainers it does so in order to point out the danger of confining large animals in relatively small space.
Now some individuals have decided that Kirby is profiting from the death of one of the people killed by the orca Tilikum, Dawn Brancheau (although Tilikum was involved in the death of three people) and therefore his book should be banned. By that logic, no one should be able to write about John Kennedy – yet new books continue to be written about his assassination decades later.
This video was recently posted, and is followed by the comment: "Let's have a book burning with all the copies?"
I wonder if kids are still expected to read Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's novel that examines the consequences of too much TV and censorship. In the novel, firemen burn every book (451 degrees Fahrenheit is given as the temperature that paper burns), because reading makes people think for themselves…
Voice of the Orcas, a website developed by former SeaWorld trainers is a rich source of information, with a user-friendly page containing interviews by experts. They readily share their resources, and there you will learn why Kirby's book is essential in unmasking the dangers of keeping orcas in captivity, which is apparently something some folks just don't want you to know.
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