The Innocence of Tilli

So I've developed this theory. I was talking to my dad who lives in Orlando about the weather up there. He was telling me how on that sad day, Wednesday when Dawn drowned (RIP Dawn Brancheau), there was a cold front coming into Central Florida. Now orcas born in the wild, have natural instincts. When it's cold out, it's instinctive, the orcas dive deeper into the water to stay away from the cold weather.

So if Tillikum was born into the wild, with these natural instincts, he maybe sensed the cold front coming into town, and thought it imperative to dive deeper into the water. Dawn, having worked with these orcas for 16 years, was basically a part of their little Seaworld pod. Tilli, being the largest and oldest orca in their "pod," is probably the alpha orca. Therefore, he probably took it upon himself to ensure that Dawn get below the surface of the water and dive deep down into the "ocean." This can very well be the case, as Dawn was very close to all the orcas at sea world, and they considered her one of them.

Thus, I'd like to propose that Tilli was just looking out for Dawn. According to eyewitnesses, he grabbed her by her ponytail and dragged her into the water. According to the autopsy, Dawn didn't die from from her injuries of being dragged by Tilly, but from drowning to death. Tilly didn't even bite the woman. He dragged her by her pony tail and tried to get her down deep into the pool. So my theory stands, that Tilly, in his head, was only trying to help, even save Dawn. It was an accident, because how are orcas supposed to know that humans can’t breathe underwater?

All in all, Tilly is a good-hearted orca. Even the incident in 1999 when the tourist snuck into his pool is justifiable. Think about a dog. If your dog lives in your backyard, and is expected to guard his territory, then it will attack anything that comes in there unless their trainer/owner allows it.

Now this man that died at seaworld in this incident is not entirely innocent. He was a stow-away at the park, and snuck into the orca pool at about 3am. Now if your dog sees someone invading the backyard at 3 in the morning, wouldn’t it attack them? YES! And this orca did just that, the only difference is the orca has more powerful jaws and can accidentally kill the man while defending his territory.

We should all be considerate to this animal's situation. Yes, he did kill his trainer. But it was unintentional and he ended up losing one of the few if not the only person who truly understands him. Dawn's family has spoken out and said that they do not want any harm to come to the whale for what happened on Wednesday. The orcas were like her children, and I am sure they felt the same way. Right now Tilly is in a small tank that he barely fits in, basically in "orca timeout." He is dwelling there, not knowing what he did wrong, and on top of that, he is grieving. Should this magnificent creature really suffer for trying to do a good deed? You tell me.

Tillikum's dorsal fin

I love Tilly! Tilly is the world's largest orca in captivity weighing in at about 12,300 lbs. His dorsal fin is curled over as a result of being in captivity. Only orcas in captivity have shown this phenomenon. Studies show that this is due to lack of activity and exercise. Orcas have the entire ocean as their jungle to play in when they are in the wild.

Tilly was used to the ocean for a while until he was captured and has since had a MUCH smaller home. Thus he is not able to swim as free and far as he was in the wild. At Seaworld and other marine exhibits, all the orcas with straight dorsal fins were usually born into captivity and thus have adapted to their small homes as their bodies know not of the great blue sea.

Another study shows that these orcas that exhibit the curled fin is due to the fact that their tanks are round, and they are forced to swim in small circles compared to the open sea.

A theory that I support heavily is the idea that orca's dorsal fins collapse when they are limited to swimming in shallow areas. Orcas have hundreds and even thousands of feet of water to dive through in the deep blue sea. However, Shamu's tank is only 36 feet deep, which is not even comparable. Their fins are erect so that they are aerodynamic enough to dive the deep depths of the ocean. I suppose that their fins collapse when they are restrained from diving deeper than 36'.

This is yet another sign that keeping orcas in captivity is unnatural, unhealthy and inhumane. They belong in their natural environments so they can be in their natural forms and dwell in the pods that they belong. Seaworld and other orca aquariums need to give up the shamu showbiz and find a new exhibit.

This is what orcas SHOULD look like, in their natural habitat. Courtesy of my favorite artist Robert Wyland, world renowned for his Whaling Walls, a huge effort to create awareness and appreciation around the planet of these giant yet miraculous creatures.

On the Sea World incident today

As most of you already know by now, an orca trainer at Seaworld Orlando was killed by one of the star whales there, Tillikum.

A quick debriefing for those of you who aren't up to speed on the story: the trainer had just finished explaining to the audience what they would see during the performance. At that point, the whale came up from the water and grabbed the woman. Tillikum got pretty aggressive with her and thrashed her pretty violently.

OK SO GET REAL PEOPLE. Orca whales are not freaking puppies, they are are not even comparable to fish. The same way it is wrong to keep a human in "captivity" i.e. human trafficking, etc. it is unethical to capture an orca whale from the wild and keep it as your "pet." In fact, despite the fact that they are called "whales," mainly because of their large size, orcas are actually part of the dolphin family, not the whale family. They are far more intelligent than whales. Why do you think humpback whales can't audition for "Free Willy??"

Dolphins are highly intelligent creatures, in fact if you look up recent studies, they are ranked 2nd to humans in intelligence. Since orcas are in the dolphin family, that means that they are on that intelligence level. And anyone who has gotten to learn about or know an orca up close and personally, are well aware that they are in fact, VERY intelligent creatures. Ever since I was young, I had an undying passion for orcas. By the way, Orca is the correct name for what most people to refer to as the Killer Whale. You know, more humans kill humans daily than "killer" whales have killed humans ever! In fact, humans kill more living things in general on a daily basis than the entire orca species.

So i'd say humans are the real killers. I think we should rename humans as "killer humans." It's more fitting. If you have killed ANY living thing, you are officially a killer human. Welcome to the wonderful world of hypocritical homo sapiens. Yes, flies, ants, mosquitoes, cockroaches count. Unless you are a vegetarian and seriously haven't killed a single living thing in your ENTIRE life, than you are a killer human. And if you are, then, yay for you.

Think about it this way: we are what the size of a mouse is to us, to a damned "killer whale." For those who need help on analogies being broken down: Human is to mouse, as Orca is to Human. How would a human feel if Stewart Little decided to capture them and make them do tricks all day long and live in a box? That would never happen because humans are far more AGGRESSIVE than those innocent orca whales, such as Tillikum. In fact humans would have killed lil ole Stewart Little before he ever got a chance to teach them how to "splash." You get the point---hopefully. Yet the orcas never did that to their captors, and guess what, they were more than capable of doing so. You jump in a tank with a 6 ton creature, where they can swim faster and more swiftly than you, and HELLO they're 6-8 TONS, they can easily kill you. Let me spell out 6 tons real quickly. A ton = 2000lbs.6 tons = 12,000 lbs. A human, averages around 160lbs. 12,000/160 = 75. So a "killer whale" weighs 75 times more than humans do. In my case, they would weigh about 100 times more. As well as the female trainer's case.

Now, Seaworld is not entirely stupid, do not let them fool you about their stance on this matter. The executives at sea world are WELL AWARE of the consequences of housing orca whales in their exhibits. But for decades now, this grand creature has rung in billions of dollars of revenue for them. In fact, that is the trade mark of seaworld, the killer whale!!! Yet, the heartless executives in corporate at seaworld decided to put rollercoasters in the same park in which they house the orcas. Now orcas can hear over 10 times better than humans. Think about being in a tank and hearing the rumbling of the 3 rollercoasters at sea world every day of your life. FYL tillikum, I feel you bro. Sea world was very knowledgeable of the fact that these creatures as well as the other marine creatures they house at their exhibit, have this increased sensory feature. In fact they provide all the facts just in case you thought they didn’t know: http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/killer-whale/senses.htm.

In fact, seaworld brought in even more educated professionals to train the orcas, work with them, and observe them from the very beginning of the theme park. Don’t think for a minute that they were not aware of its aggressive tendencies. Executives are not going to bring an animal onsite without knowing the advantages and disadvantages. From a corporate standpoint, it was very advantageous to import the whales. They are what raked in the main revenue for the park, and if a person was to be killed every few years, then so what? That’s not at all that big of a loss if you compare it in numbers.

Russ Rector, a former dolphin trainer in Fort Lauderdale, said keeping the animals captive makes them dangerous.

"Captivity is abusive to these animals. And the abuse mounts up. And when these animals snap -- just for a minute -- they're so big and can be so dangerous that it's like a shotgun," Rector said. "It does an incredible amount of damage in just a moment."

And ladies and gentlemen, I promise you, the execs up in sea world already knew this. In fact, anyone with COMMON SENSE already knows this. Remember the 6 tons versus 160lbs talk we had earlier? Yeah, I would have to allocate that as common sense.

Anyways, I think I’ve ranted enough about sea world for today. There’s so much more to say, and even today I didn’t know where to start. But just a few facts can make a world of difference in this harsh, cruel, inhumane world.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/healthcare/a/tallbutfat.htm

http://news.discovery.com/animals/dolphins-smarter-brain-function.html