Tilikum's Story

Tilikum is a 12,500 pound and 22 feet long orca that was taken from his home in the wild and brought into captivity for entertainment. He was the first killer whale to be taken from the wild and put into captivity. He was taken when he was only two years old near Iceland, and ripped away from his family. After his capture he was held in a cement holding tank for almost a year, all he could do was swim in small circles and float at the surface of the water because the tank was too small for him. Which was far less than the 100 miles he would swim with his family in the wild. He was transferred to Sea land in British Colombia where he was forced to perform "every hour on the hour, eight times a day, seven days a week." He wasn't allowed food as a training technique, so when he didn't do a trick correctly he and his tank mates weren't allowed food. Due to that he was brutally attacked by the two female orcas that shared a tank with him, they would drag their teeth down the length of Tilikum's body.

On February 21, 1991 trainer Keltie Bryne fell into the tank with all three orcas and Tilikum pulled her to the bottom of the tank and drowned her. She was the first to die due to Tilikum's stress, frustration, and confinement. After her death Sea Land closed down and sold Tilikum to SeaWorld. where they used his sperm to create a collection of orcas and now 54% have his genes. Its so sad to think that people like this see these animals as money makers. Also that the orcas are so unhappy that they kill people. Over the years Tilikum has been involved in a number of incidents involving aggression. The stress of captivity drives him crazy which leads him to chew on metal gates and the concrete sides of the tank which has worn his teeth down to nubs. His aggression has also taken two more live. He was then confined to a very small tank and then after that he was returned to perform.

Tilikum is not the only orca whom has become aggressive due to stress. The park owns records of 600 pages of incidents with over 100 including bit, ramming, lunging at, pulling, pinning and swimming aggressively with trainers. Its not fair that these whales are forced into these conditions, they are living things. And I don't understand how after so many incidents the workers at these parks don't realize how unhappy the orcas are. That they are acting this way because they are stuck in these tanks.