Free Tilly

I recently watched a documentary called Black Fish, this documentary primarily circles the life of a whale named Tilikum. Tilikum is the largest Orca, commonly known as a Killer Whale, ever to be kept in captivity and he currently lives down at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. The movie starts in 1983 by talking about how Tilikum and two other Orcas were brutally captured and how multiple other Orcas died during this process. It then quickly moves on to tell us about  Tilikum's new living conditions and he was horrifically treated by his trainers and the two other Orcas. Since Tilikum was only a child at the time, and not nearly as large as he his now, he was routinely attacked by the two other whales who had to share the small new home with Tilikum. One day Tilikum had snapped and during the middle of a show he attacked his trainer and killed her with little help from the other whales. In return this event lead to the closing of this park and Tilikum was sent to SeaWorld after being bought for a large sum of money. 

Details about the death of the Trainer at Tilikum's first venue were smudged and Trainers at SeaWorld (Where Tilikum was moved to and still resides today) were unaware that Tilikum was the whale that took part in the attack that had lead to such a terrible death. In fact, Trainers were delighted to be able to work with such a "friendly" and "well-trained" animal. As time went on Tilikum began to steal the show at SeaWorld, people would fill the stadium just to see his performances. Over the next twenty or so years at SeaWorld Tilikum has gone on to brutally kill two more people and has shown countless acts of disobedience and aggression. Still SeaWorld has refused to free him after all of this for two main reasons: the money and attention he brings in and the price of sperm. In fact, over half of the Orca's at SeaWorld carry Tilikum's genes. Tilikum is too beneficial when it comes to reproducing more whales rather than capturing new ones. 

Till this day Tilikum spends most of his days confined alone in the smallest tank SeaWorld has to offer and he only comes out to perform in rare, short parts of shows based on his behavior. Former trainers of Tilikum are supporting a movement called Free Tilly Now. From personal experience these trainers know how SeaWorld alter facts both to their trainers and people attending their shows about their whales and they now believe it is time for this to change. Tilikum is clearly no longer fit for this life style and it is only fair for him to be freed. 

Unfortunately, many people believe that as long as the businessmen surrounding SeaWorld care more about profit than they do about the safety and well being of both their whales and trainers things will never change. It seems to be a driving theme throughout history to present day that money what is most important even if it put others at risk. In addition to this many trainers in at SeaWorld are over confident and under estimate the animals that they are working with. These humans do not realize the severity of working with a 12,000 pound animal that they can hardly communicate with. Do you think this is a common American theme? Do you think the treatment of Tilikum is just? Please share your comments.

 You can visit Free Tilly Now's web page here.