Whales are not Poodles; my take on Kilikum the Orca

[maggies_lens]

While I am horrofied and deeply saddened by the death of marine trainer Dawn Bracheau's death at Florida Seaworld, I don't blame Tilikum the Orca at all. Orcas are extremely intelligent, and their natural inclination is to travel miles and miles and miles each and every single day. Hunting, interacting, exploring. To keep them in what amounts to a giant fish tank is just not natural or right. It's WORSE than an acqurium; I have one and the amount of work I put into it to make it an enriching location for the fish was huge. How can ANYONE replicate the ocean in a tank? Even places like Melbourne Aquarium wouldn't come close. It's great for fish and rays etc, but not the hyper intelligent species. Tilikum was already 2 years old when he was captured near Iceland i.e he was not born to captivity and by that age dolphins (orcas are a part of the dolphin family, not whale like most people think) are VERY much aware and would have a hard time getting used to the loss of freedom. I'm not saying the breeding of whales and dolphins for shows is any better but atleast the animals are used to the conditions from an early age. Maybe he remembers. Or maybe he was just doing a natural behaviour for his species i.e grab the prey, play with the prey, bite the prey, eat the prey. In fact you can see that behaviour in a BILLION Nat Geo doco's, hell you can see it with any pet cat; give them a scrunched up piece of paper and you'll see basically what happened.
Do I think captive whales and dolphins should be freed? Yes. Yes I do. I think one of the sacred duties of any animal owner/handler is to replicate their natural living conditions as closely as possible as often as possible, with the obvious removal of dangerous factors like predators, disease, injuries, worming, that sort of thing. If you can't provide tht, don't own the animal or take it from it's natural habitat. It's complicated tho; you can't just let them go. They'll die. They need to be taught how to hunt again. They need a family/pod to join. They need to learn a fear of humans so we don't cross paths too closely. This takes a loooong time, which means money. And we all know how devoted we humans can be when it means costing us a fortune with no personal benefot *rolls eyes*. I don't think captive born even CAN be freed, I don't think they'd survive. It's like me dumping my dogs in the middle of the bush and thinking they'll survive. Yeah they might, but god they'd suffer greatly, and probably live for a couple of years on the verge of starvation before meeting a painful end.
The other factor is public awareness and education. Most people don't have the opportunity to go whale watching like I got to. The vast majority would never see dolphins or whales in real life, only on the screen. The screen can't bring across the sheer majesty and power of these incredible animals. Once you have seen them, (unless you are a filthy bastard Japanese whaler who deserves to die a horrible, nasty, painful death by being slowly skinned and disembolwed then have acid tipped on you repeatedly while being beaten with reeds with razor blades in them...er, sorry, I am VERY anti-whaling), you can't help but be touched. You could argue these orcas are helping raise awareness. And they def are. But that shouldn't be to the detriment of their health, mental and physical.
In a perfect world they'd be freed, and live out their lives happily. In a perfect world I'd be allowed to sink every whaling ship in the world and refuse to rescue their crews. Neither are going to happen. At least Orlando SeaWorld have already said Kilikum won't be destroyed. He's been involved in two other deaths in the past, neither wash is fault, one was a tragic accident, the other the guy probably deserved it, gene pool cleansing. This ladies death was preventable, but it's easy to say 'if only'. So what happens to Kilikum now? He won't be used in shows any more. He'll spend his days in a tank. A sterile, empty tank. Maybe if he's really lucky he'll be moved to one of those mid-way pens where he's in a cage in the sea. Either way, no one wins. You have to ask yourself, was it worth it?

Comments

[phoenix-rose-up.livejournal.com]

apparently they were saying on the news tonight he grabbed her pony tail to PLAY with her not in a prey way but more a dominance-showing way (like they would play in the wild)

they say he'll be used for breeding purposes mostly (as of news an hr ago here) as he has proven to have some spectacular offspring in captive breeding programmes.

its terribly sad though :(

[maggies-lens.livejournal.com]

See that just makes no sense to me; clearly Kilikum has proven that orcas in captivity are NOT safe, why on earth breed more? Is this causing much debate over there?

[phoenix-rose-up.livejournal.com]

enough.. the big push is to have him released back into the wild.. but like you said too much money involved.

[madeyemads.livejournal.com]

I agree with you completely.
I have seen whales in the wild, and there they should stay. Watching the cow with her calf and others jumping and playing at Warnambool was such a precious, special experience and part of that was because we knew how free, how big, how wonderful they were.
Conversely, I have been to seaworld twice. Once when I was a kid, once taking my sister a year ago. Last time, god it was depressing. Keeping dolphins in pools doing tricks is morally WRONG, it's not where they should be. Same as those poor, poor polar bears, God I nearly cried seeing them in a cage in QUEENSLAND on a 30 degree day. Wrong and bad.

I feel very sad for this poor woman dying but orcas shouldn't be in tanks, how sad.

[maggies-lens.livejournal.com]

Well thats' it; whales and dolphins are meant to be FREE. They are not epts, they should never BE pets, and no wildlife park, no matter how well meaning, is ever going to give them the quality of life they need. They are self aware, for god's sake, they need to be left alone. Watching the whales at Eden was magic. I consider myself extremely privledged to have been so close to them, and to have seen them when they were all in such a high mood :-D When the mumma came up to the boat with her calf to 'talk' with the Canadian researchers on boared who had clearly formed relationships with them, it was just... amazing. I've always been on their side, but after seeing their power and sheer presence, nothing in this world could ever convince me they aren't sentient and should never, ever be hunted, for ANY reason. EVER.
I don;t know how I feel about the polar bears. I know in the wild they are as lazy as they can get away with, and the keepers do their best to give them a good life but, I dunno, Queensland? Polar Bears? Not a natural mix. I'd think even Melbourne may be a bit too warm.

[http://users.livejournal.com/blitzen_/]

whilst your recuperating at home, perhaps try and watch a documentary called "The Cove" about dolphin killing in japan. interviews the dude who started the whole Flipper phenomenon & realised after a while that dolphins are self aware. talks about the complete hypocrisy & cover up behind japan's whaling policy. very very very powerful stuff.

[maggies-lens.livejournal.com]

I've seen something very similar, I think. Was a doco on Animal Planet about captive cetaceans (dolphins, whales) and the history behind it all. They had a big thing about the original Flipper and what a terrible end she met with. I can't handle the whaling, by Japan or Norway or ANYone. I can't stand hunting at the best of times, but I do understand and respect the need for somepeople to do so, and I respect hunters who take the time to study to learn to do it humanely, but as far as hunting for pleasure or just because it's traditional.... makes my blood boil. I honestly think I would do violence onto a whaler, seriously, I would be willing to do jail time if it meant saving even one whale.

[http://users.livejournal.com/blitzen_/]

yeah, the cove will make you want to hunt these guys down and fuck them up. especially the whole conspiracy/cover up aspect of it. it's a fucking outrage.