Packman
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I watched this storyville documentary on BBC4 last night, I'd sky+'d it from about a month ago. It was called Blackfish - The Whale that Killed. Silly ***le about this Killer Whale called Tillikum who has killed some idiot who broke into Sea Life and jumped in his holding tank and also two of his trainers. Anyway, it struck a chord, so I recorded it.
I have to say it was the most upsetting thing I've seen on TV this year. The way these amazing giants are treated by Sea Life left me very upset and angry. Sea Life are a multi-billion dollar corporation. Their killer whale displays are their main selling point. You go to Florida as a tourist and the Sea Life Centre at Orlando where Tillikum is incarcerated is one of the top three tourist attractions of the state? Killer Whales have the same life span as us in the wild. The females can hit 100 years old. The average life span for an Orca in captivity is 25 to 30 years. Sea Life lie to your face and tell tourists that's the norm. Feel free to look it up yourself if you like.
Orca's live in the open ocean and can swim miles every day. In sea life they spend two thirds of the day in a holding tank with one or two other whales, no space to swim, regularly getting so frustrated they'll fight each other, yet there is nowhere for the victim to swim to. Back in the early 70's when Sealife first had the bright idea of capturing these animals they would trap a pod with nets separate the baby whales from their mothers and air lift it to the training pools. When this became public Washington state filed a court injunction preventing sea life from hunting Orca along their shore line. Without missing a beat Sea Life moved operations to the coast of Iceland. That's where they caught Tillikum. He was four years old. Remember that Orcas live as long as we do. Even now I'm getting upset as I write this. Scientists have noted that the areas of the brain that control an animals emotions are particularly large in Killer Whales, They live in family pods all their lives, there's records of entire pods beaching themselves because they won't leave one of their family stuck on the shore. So Sea Life actually stole four year old calves from their mothers. Once Sea Life had enough Orca they began breeding them in captivity using artificial insemination. That's the reason Tillikum is still alive and killing his trainer. His seamen is pure gold to Sea Life. Orcas behave differently all around the world. Californian Orca's have been known to hunt great white sharks, South African Orcas hunt seal onto the beach, NZ Orca are partial to Skate. Artic Orca wash seals off iceburg's by creating a bow wave. They are clever mammals. Sea life will grab an east coast orca and stick it with two Iceland orcas, put them in atrocious living conditions and expect them to get along. Tillkum was regularly attacked by the two female orcas he was put with throughout his childhood. The trainers would refuse all three whales food if Tillkum didn't perform his tricks correctly in training. This frustrated the females orcas and then they'd be stuffed into this small holding tank at night and in the morning the trainers would see a fresh batch of wounds on his body.
The young Orcas born in captivity are not allowed to stay with their mothers either. Sea life will ship them all over america to boost ticket sales, Who wouldn't want to see a baby killer whale right? A trainer recalled one such time, where the calf was taken from its mother. The mother was left shaking in the corner of the pool sceaming for it's child for days. A ocra specialist was brought in to analyse the vocalisations and their were long range calls. The mother was desperately calling for her baby.
I think you now get the message. The go to defense from Sea Life is that they have raised awareness of the Orca throughout the world. That's ********. I knew loads about Orca before watching this program. I've seen American, NZ and BBC documentaries with HD underwater footage which blows my mind, I've seen them swimming with Kayaks in Canada and Norway surrounded by scenery that just lifts you up and leaves me feeling privileged to have been given that memory to come back to whenever I like. Orcas are beautiful open ocean animals and they've been exploited by Sea Life for over 40 years. It's inhuman or at least I hope it is, I have my doubts sometimes. It seems that if you can make money out of something then its fair game no matter what how morally dubious.
Given an Orca's intelligence, their communication ability, the close knit family bonds and the range of emotions they are capable of; what this Multi-billion Dollar corporation is doing is on par with human trafficking as far as i'm concerned. I needed to spread the word because this has to stop NOW. People should realise that Sea Life's Public persona is a sham.
Oh and by the way. They routinely blame any trainer injury including Dawn Brancheau's death on the trainer failing to take adequate precautions. She's dead and Sea Life can't blame Tillikum because it would raise difficult questions Tillikum's living conditions and his state of mind, so they said Dawn wasn't doing her job properly.
No more. Stop the breeding program. Transport the whales to open water pens and let them live out their lives with some kind of respite from the cruelty they've suffered from the majority of their lives. How can we make this happen? Spread the truth. Then make your own mind up. I will not purchase any sea life product and I'll tell anyone I meet who talks Sea Life up exactly what they are really like.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03j49l6
I have to say it was the most upsetting thing I've seen on TV this year. The way these amazing giants are treated by Sea Life left me very upset and angry. Sea Life are a multi-billion dollar corporation. Their killer whale displays are their main selling point. You go to Florida as a tourist and the Sea Life Centre at Orlando where Tillikum is incarcerated is one of the top three tourist attractions of the state? Killer Whales have the same life span as us in the wild. The females can hit 100 years old. The average life span for an Orca in captivity is 25 to 30 years. Sea Life lie to your face and tell tourists that's the norm. Feel free to look it up yourself if you like.
Orca's live in the open ocean and can swim miles every day. In sea life they spend two thirds of the day in a holding tank with one or two other whales, no space to swim, regularly getting so frustrated they'll fight each other, yet there is nowhere for the victim to swim to. Back in the early 70's when Sealife first had the bright idea of capturing these animals they would trap a pod with nets separate the baby whales from their mothers and air lift it to the training pools. When this became public Washington state filed a court injunction preventing sea life from hunting Orca along their shore line. Without missing a beat Sea Life moved operations to the coast of Iceland. That's where they caught Tillikum. He was four years old. Remember that Orcas live as long as we do. Even now I'm getting upset as I write this. Scientists have noted that the areas of the brain that control an animals emotions are particularly large in Killer Whales, They live in family pods all their lives, there's records of entire pods beaching themselves because they won't leave one of their family stuck on the shore. So Sea Life actually stole four year old calves from their mothers. Once Sea Life had enough Orca they began breeding them in captivity using artificial insemination. That's the reason Tillikum is still alive and killing his trainer. His seamen is pure gold to Sea Life. Orcas behave differently all around the world. Californian Orca's have been known to hunt great white sharks, South African Orcas hunt seal onto the beach, NZ Orca are partial to Skate. Artic Orca wash seals off iceburg's by creating a bow wave. They are clever mammals. Sea life will grab an east coast orca and stick it with two Iceland orcas, put them in atrocious living conditions and expect them to get along. Tillkum was regularly attacked by the two female orcas he was put with throughout his childhood. The trainers would refuse all three whales food if Tillkum didn't perform his tricks correctly in training. This frustrated the females orcas and then they'd be stuffed into this small holding tank at night and in the morning the trainers would see a fresh batch of wounds on his body.
The young Orcas born in captivity are not allowed to stay with their mothers either. Sea life will ship them all over america to boost ticket sales, Who wouldn't want to see a baby killer whale right? A trainer recalled one such time, where the calf was taken from its mother. The mother was left shaking in the corner of the pool sceaming for it's child for days. A ocra specialist was brought in to analyse the vocalisations and their were long range calls. The mother was desperately calling for her baby.
I think you now get the message. The go to defense from Sea Life is that they have raised awareness of the Orca throughout the world. That's ********. I knew loads about Orca before watching this program. I've seen American, NZ and BBC documentaries with HD underwater footage which blows my mind, I've seen them swimming with Kayaks in Canada and Norway surrounded by scenery that just lifts you up and leaves me feeling privileged to have been given that memory to come back to whenever I like. Orcas are beautiful open ocean animals and they've been exploited by Sea Life for over 40 years. It's inhuman or at least I hope it is, I have my doubts sometimes. It seems that if you can make money out of something then its fair game no matter what how morally dubious.
Given an Orca's intelligence, their communication ability, the close knit family bonds and the range of emotions they are capable of; what this Multi-billion Dollar corporation is doing is on par with human trafficking as far as i'm concerned. I needed to spread the word because this has to stop NOW. People should realise that Sea Life's Public persona is a sham.
Oh and by the way. They routinely blame any trainer injury including Dawn Brancheau's death on the trainer failing to take adequate precautions. She's dead and Sea Life can't blame Tillikum because it would raise difficult questions Tillikum's living conditions and his state of mind, so they said Dawn wasn't doing her job properly.
No more. Stop the breeding program. Transport the whales to open water pens and let them live out their lives with some kind of respite from the cruelty they've suffered from the majority of their lives. How can we make this happen? Spread the truth. Then make your own mind up. I will not purchase any sea life product and I'll tell anyone I meet who talks Sea Life up exactly what they are really like.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03j49l6
