Orka djur
During the attack, he reportedly scalped her and bit off her arm. And even when SeaWorld staff members had trapped and netted him, Tilikum would not let go of the body. While the captivity industry tried to spin this horrific story as an accident and a playful scene that slipped out of control, audience members said they had little doubt that Tilikum knew exactly what he was doing.
This was the third time that Tilikum had struck back since his capture as a two-year-old calf. In February , at Sealand of the Pacific in Victoria BC, when a young part-time trainer slipped and fell into their pool, Tilikum and his two tankmates submerged her and dragged her around the pool. When she managed to reach the side and tried to climb out, they pulled her back down. Staff members threw her a life-ring, but the whales kept her away from it.
She surfaced three times before drowning, and it was several hours before her body could be recovered from the pool. Sealand never recovered from the incident. It closed a year later, and Tilikum was sent to SeaWorld Orlando. An autopsy found numerous wounds, contusions and abrasions covering his body, and his genitals had been bitten off.
What Happened to Tilikum, the Orca That Killed His SeaWorld Trainer?
Exactly what had happened was never established after SeaWorld claimed that the event was not captured on any of the cameras that monitor the whales. This terrible incident became the subject of a book, Death at SeaWorld, and of the documentary film Blackfish , which has led more and more people to question the ethics of keeping these apex predators in concrete tanks.
But under pressure from humane groups, the company in announced that it would stop breeding orcas. And trainers are no longer allowed in the water with their captives. If anything, these animals are psychologically strong, not weak. They are choosing to fight back. Only a few months before Tilikum killed his trainer, Keto, an orca who had been transferred from SeaWorld Orlando to Loro Parque Zoo in the Canary Islands, turned on his trainer and killed him.
That incident is explored in Outside magazine by journalist Tim Zimmerman who also writes about the death of Brancheau here.
The True and Tragic Story of Tilikum, SeaWorld's Captive Orca
Other experts have suggested that whales in captivity suffer from a form of post-traumatic stress, which may certainly be the case. But there is another factor to be considered, one that is perhaps more disturbing: the issue of deliberation. Indeed, it is often a moment of distinct clarity. This is not to say that Tilikum and others are not suffering from clinical depression or stress-related ailments.
Rather the point is that captive animals have used their intelligence, ingenuity, and tenacity to overcome the situations and obstacles put before them.
Tilikum: The Whale Who Rebelled
Their actions have had intent and purpose. The industry encourages you to think that these animals are intelligent, but not intelligent enough to have the ability to resist. The industry encourages you to care about them, so that you and your children will return for a visit.
But it does not want you to care so much that you might develop empathy and begin to question whether these animals actually want to be there. We can recognize this struggle, learn from it, and choose a side. Where [did] Tilikum want to be? Certainly not confined in the lonely and sterile tanks of Sea World. When those family bonds are torn apart, the psychological damage is inestimable.
By any definition and by any standard, keeping these apex predators of the ocean in small tanks for the amusement of tourists is more than just wrong; it is a crime against each of them individually and a sin against nature that cannot be righted by the occasional claim of conservation or educational benefit. In the ocean, whales and dolphins often go out of their way to extend a display of friendship toward humans.
But, given the opportunity, a captive whale or dolphin will make it abundantly clear that he or she has no desire to be the prisoner of humans.