At least Keiko was able to die in the natural environment he was born in, and not in some nasty artificial tank. After his return to the real ocean, he lived for several years and even chose to leave his "caretakers" on his own. Yes, in the end, he did eventually die, and many would see that as a sad thing, but, all creatures die, and he at least had a chance to have freedom after languishing in a pathetic tiny, overheated tank in Mexico. His nasty skin condition eventually cleared up too. I think a lot of people are under the impression that he was returned to Icelandic waters just to die shortly after. No, it was years after. Even so, had he remained in Mexico, he most likely would have died sooner, and would not have had that taste of freedom and had the chance to swim thousands of miles in his home environment, and catch live fish on his own.
When anti-captivity folks bring up the potential "freeing" of the orcas, it's not just "dumping" them back into the ocean. There is a lot more to it and it involves a lot of work, a lot of planning, and a lot of money. It's not an easy feat, and it wouldn't be feasible for a good number of captive orcas (i.e. the ones born in captivity). But there are a few that are from the Pacific Northwest resident population, and it is known where their families are. As smart, and social as orcas are, they would know their family members, even after they were kidnapped 40 years ago. Do humans ever forget a family member that was taken away from them? Does a mother forget her baby? it's the same for orcas. There is a lot of support for letting Lolita (a female orca held at the Miami Seaquarium) retire and rejoin her family. It is known that her mother and even her Grandmother (who is 102 years old) are still alive, and they know exactly where they are. After all of the money Lolita has made the Miami Seaquarium, she deserves to live out the rest of her life with the family she was wrongly stolen from.
For the record, I am not a member of PETA or an animal rights zealot, but I feel a strong spiritual connection to the orcas, and have studied them my entire life. I just feel captivity is plain wrong, (not for ALL animals, but for certain animals that are not at all suited for captivity) and I have made the personal decision to not support it.
What I am about to post is not meant to be disrespectful in any way shape or form.
I apologize in advance if I offend anyone.
Use of words like "kidnapped", "wrongly stolen", "pathetic, tiny, overheated" etc are very similar to the tactics used by PETA.
We are attaching human traits to these animals and they are not human. Orcas may be highly intelligent for an animal, but it is still an animal. Orcas have killed those who treat them the best and deliver food and stimulation. Please don't think I blame the orca anymore than I blame the tiger that hurt Roy of and Roy. They are wild creatures and we lose site of that. They have natural instincts and we can't fault them for that.
What we can do to honor them is to stop giving them human traits. They are beautiful animals, but they are animals.
I would also venture a guess that a lot of folks that are upset by this got their first experience with an orca from Seaworld.
Without SeaWorld, I'm guessing folks would not care as much.
I have a reason to believe this.
Something happened in the last few days that absolutely sickens me and I have not seen a word posted about it here,
Something called the Dallas Safari Club auctioned off a permit to hunt and kill one of the rarest and most in danger of extinction animals on earth...the black rhino.
Experts believe there are less that 5000 left.
Their reason for doing this...because it will help the rest of the rhinos. They state that they will donate the money raised to countries in Africa to help raise awareness and educate people about the rhino.
The said news...some tool with a lot of money paid $350,000 to hunt and kill an endangered animal.
I'm not sure how far $350,000 will go in poor countries, so in my opinion, it's legitimized murder.
I'm guessing SeaWorld raises multiples of $350,000 every day and does it's best to educate guests about the animals on display....none of which are endangered, except maybe the manatee.
All that being said.....no one has posted a word about this. No outrage. No bands canceling performances, Nothing. Zilch. Squat.
It's because of this that I think this hoopla over SeaWorld is overblown.
_ )
