Seaworld’s Orca whale Tilikum is sick and slowly dying. Is it any wonder, because big fish don’t belong in little ponds. Imagine yourself spending your entire life enclosed in your bathtub. That has basically been the fate of Tilikum, because some of us inhumane humans find it entertaining to see big fish in little ponds.
Captured at the age of 2 in the North Atlantic, Tilikum was snatched from his family and shipped to the pacific to work for Seaworld, spending more than 30 years in captivity. He is now close to death with a bacterial infection that is drug resistant.
The big whale’s rise to fame came from the documentary Blackfish, which told the story of Tilikum’s captivity and the tragic deaths he caused. The documentary enlightens many to the fact that captivity causes aggression in killer whales. The Blackfish web site states that, “Along the way, director-producer Gabriela Cowperthwaite compiles shocking footage and emotional interviews to explore the creature’s extraordinary nature, the species’ cruel treatment in captivity, the lives and losses of the trainers and the pressures brought to bear by the multi-billion dollar sea-park industry.”
Some continue to refute the facts and still believe that animal captivity is acceptable, how blind are they? Wouldn’t you go crazy if you were ripped from your family and jailed for life in a tiny cell for the simple purpose of human entertainment? Come on people, we don’t need to be entertained by live animals when we can experience and learn virtually. What are we learning from this type of entertainment? Isn’t it better to understand nature on her own terms.
Places like Seaworld and Marineland should be run out of business. What purpose do they serve? It may be too late for Tilikum, but what about the rest of them? Join the campaign to #emptythetanks and #freetilikum because #captivitykills
Want to make a difference? Don’t buy a ticket to watch whales in captivity and do donate to great organizations like Dr. Ingrid Visser’s Orca Research Trust.
Read this excellent article from the Orca Research Trust that explains how captivity kills http://www.orcaresearch.org/index.php/why-captivity-sucks
Watch this powerful video until the end to see Dr. Visser’s work with Orcas.
