Free Tilikum? Or Charge Sea World?

March 1, 2010

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Who is surprised that a thirty-year-old, six-ton orca living in a swimming pool in which he cannot even turn around doesn’t on occasion act out. In the case last week where the show-whale named Tilikum took one of his trainers by surprise and drowned her – while obviously a heart-breaking incident for the poor woman, her family, friends, peers, etc. – really, who is shocked? I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often with animals of any kind that are locked up, caged or kept in captivity. Two of my peers, highly respected in the big mammal world, wrote slightly different takes on Tilikum’s future. Dr. Naomi Rose, senior scientist with the Human Society International, suggests “thinking outside the swimming pool” retiring the big whale to a sea pen off Iceland, where he was initially captured in 1983. Ric O’Barry, the TV dolphin trainer cum dolphin rescuer, star of the fantastic documentary “The Cove,” takes a stiffer line, suggesting that SeaWorld be investigated for violating marine mammal laws and that returning the big animal to shows was cynical if not illegal, knowing what they do — and what they have known — about his disposition.