On Thursday, February 25, 2010, the killer whales we have always heard about since our childhood watching “Free Willy” held true to its name. Tilikum, an orca whale held at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, attacked and drowned its trainer, Dawn Brancheau. Witnesses at the live performance say the whale grabbed the woman’s ponytail in its jaws and pulled her in, playing with her like a toy until she drowned. Shockingly, this has not been the first time something like this has happened with Tilikum. In 1991, he was blamed as one of three whales who killed a woman who fell into a pool tank in British Columbia, and eight years later, the body of a naked man was found with bite marks from Tilikum.
Why is this okay? The chief of animal training at SeaWorld parks stated: “…we have to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Well… it already happened three times, how many more chances are you going to give this killer whale? Simply a change of habitat at different theme parks is obviously not proving to be the answer. I truly hope that SeaWorld can come up with some sort of solution that will actually work this time, because too many lives have been taken already. She was more than just a trainer, she meant a lot to different people, and played the role of “…someone’s daughter, mother.” A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman says, “for the most part, they run a top-notch facility.” For the most part, eh? Not convincing to me.
I feel like SeaWorld should increase the size of the captivity of Tilikum because this could decrease the stress put on the whale and make him more at ease. Creating a little more space for him to move around in (a 6 ton creature with almost not enough room to turn around in would make me a little frustrated too). I understand the importance of keeping this animal for breeding purposes, as he is the largest and oldest orca in captivity today (which must have good genes to carry on to younger generations), but safety is the number one most important thing, and what SeaWorld has done in the past is not cutting it. Soon the blame will be taken from Tilikum itself and be placed on SeaWorld, his captivity, instead. It’s time to try to give this captive orca a better, more respectful life.
Article found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35566392/ns/us_news-environment/
food for thought. 
Leave a comment