JASON RANTZ

Rantz: Some of your orca reaction is, well, nuts

Aug 14, 2018, 6:29 AM | Updated: 11:29 am

Biologists attempt to feed J50 live salmon. (NOAA West Coast Fisheries) J50 near Lime Kiln Point, San Juan Island, and with other females in her family on Aug. 11, 2018. (Photos by Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries) Researchers take breath samples of the orca known as J50 on July 21, 2018. ( Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries) Biologists attempt to feed J50 live salmon. (NOAA West Coast Fisheries) Biologists attempt to feed J50 live salmon. (NOAA West Coast Fisheries) Biologists attempt to feed J50 live salmon. (NOAA West Coast Fisheries) Biologists attempt to feed J50 live salmon. (NOAA West Coast Fisheries) Biologists attempt to feed J50 live salmon. (NOAA West Coast Fisheries) Biologists attempt to feed J50 live salmon. (NOAA West Coast Fisheries) Biologists attempt to feed J50 live salmon. (NOAA West Coast Fisheries) Biologists attempt to feed J50 live salmon. (NOAA West Coast Fisheries) Biologists attempt to feed J50 live salmon. (NOAA West Coast Fisheries)  In this Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018, photo released by the Center for Whale Research, an orca, known as J35, foreground, swims with other orcas near Friday Harbor, Alaska. Researchers said J-35 an endangered killer whale that drew international attention as she carried her dead calf on her head for more than two weeks is finally back to feeding and frolicking with her pod. (Center for Whale Research via AP) J50 off San Juan Island. (Photos by Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries) J Pod moved into Canadian waters on Friday.  (Photo by Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries) Jeff Foster prepares to take a breath sample from J50, Aug. 9, 2018. (Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries) Dr. Martin Haulena, Dr. Brad Hanson, and Trevor Foster prepare to adminsiter an injection of antibiotics to J50 on Aug. 9, 2018. (Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries) Jeff Foster tests the breath sampling pole that teams will use during the planned health assessment of J50. (Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries) Jeff Foster of the Whale Sanctuary Project checks the pole that will be used to collect breath samples during the planned health assessment of J50 (John Gussman/NOAA Fisheries) Dr. Martin Haulena of the Vancouver Aquarium and Jeff Foster of the Whale Sanctuary Project, prepare antibiotics to administer to J50, Aug. 9, 2018. (Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries) J50 is still keeping up with her pod, Aug. 9, 2018. (Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries) Orca known as J53 pushes her late calf in the waters near Cape Flattery, Wash. Aug. 8, 2018. (Sara Tavares, Fisheries and Oceans Canada) The orca known as J50 near Cape Flattery, Wash. Aug. 8, 2018. (Brian Gisborne, Fisheries and Oceans Canada)  In this Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018, Southern Resident killer whale J50 and her mother, J16, swim off the west coast of Vancouver Island near Port Renfrew, B.C. J50 is the sick whale that a team of experts are hoping to save by giving her antibiotics or feeding her live salmon at sea. The experts now have authorization to intervene with medical treatment in both U.S. and Canadian waters once the critically endangered orca shows up again in the inland waters of the Pacific Northwest. (Brian Gisborne/Fisheries and Oceans Canada via AP) Fisheries and Oceans Canada spotted J50 and her pod near the west entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. (Katy Foster/NOAA Fisheries) Orca researchers follow J50 and her pod in Puget Sound. (NOAA) 
              In this photo taken Tuesday, July 24, 2018, provided by the Center for Whale Research, a baby orca whale is being pushed by her mother after being born off the Canada coast near Victoria, British Columbia. The new orca died soon after being born. Ken Balcomb with the Center for Whale Research says the dead calf was seen Tuesday being pushed to the surface by her mother just a half hour after it was spotted alive. Balcomb says the mother was observed propping the newborn on her forehead and trying to keep it near the surface of the water. (Michael Weiss/Center for Whale Research via AP)
            
              In this photo taken Tuesday, July 24, 2018, provided by the Center for Whale Research, a baby orca whale is being pushed by her mother after being born off the Canada coast near Victoria, British Columbia. The new orca died soon after being born. Ken Balcomb with the Center for Whale Research says the dead calf was seen Tuesday being pushed to the surface by her mother just a half hour after it was spotted alive. Balcomb says the mother was observed propping the newborn on her forehead and trying to keep it near the surface of the water. (David Ellifrit/Center for Whale Research via AP)

Not to be a downer here, because I certainly understand why so many of you have spoken out in anguish over what we’ve seen with the pod of orcas struggling to survive in Puget Sound, but it needs to be said: some of your reaction is absolutely nuts and over-the-top. In some cases, it’s embarrassing.

Not because you have emotions, but because you’re focused on whales while human beings are suffering.

VIDEO: Team attempts to feed orca live salmon

The image of a mother orca carrying her deceased calf is, of course, heartbreaking. Our concern over another orca unwilling to eat is, of course, warranted. But some people are going to far.

“I can’t stop crying. I can’t sleep,” wrote a reader to the Seattle Times. “My heart is aching and I am powerless to help.”

If you can’t stop crying and you’re unable to sleep, there is something deeply wrong with your ability to cope. Orcas are not human. This kind of orca-suffering, while tragic and sad, should not render you unable to stop the tears from flowing. You should be able to sleep at night.

I’m not so much bothered by the reaction to this, I think, as I am to the reaction to stories of actual humans suffering. Literally, in our neighborhoods.

We have a worsening opioid epidemic and a growing homelessness problem. We have people living under freeways, surrounded by human waste, with a mental illness or addiction that isn’t being treated, and yet we can sleep well each night?

We have our neighborhoods turning into dumps. Have you been near Cherry Street and 6th? It’s like a trash-bomb went off. This isn’t good enough for animals to inhabit, let alone for the people we’re letting sleep there without any threat of being moved into a shelter.

But an orca won’t eat some salmon, so we can’t stop crying and can’t fall asleep? This is not rationale.

Orca over sea lions?

I’m always shocked by what some people are moved by — and what they’ll ignore.

What is it about orcas that are so moving? The majesty of the creature? We have many animals that are majestic. And it can’t be that whales are cute, which is often a reason we like some animals over others.

Just a few weeks ago, in a move to protect salmon, we said we’d be willing to murder more sea lions because they’re eating the salmon. We’ll kill adorable sea lions who are hungry so we can protect the salmon. But now we’re feeding the salmon to an orca. So we protect the salmon by killing the sea lions, only to try to get the orca to eat the salmon? Where were the tears and sleepless nights for the sea lions?

Too bad orcas don’t eat sea lions. We could feed them sea lions, which saves the orcas and the salmon at the same time. Two birds (well, not birds, I guess), one stone.

Jason Rantz on AM 770 KTTH
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