Sea World

SeaWorld seems like the Catholic church, they keep moving problem whales around to different cities.

Whale had killed before in British Columbia

Third kill for this whale. Some would say it's unfair because the law requires dogs who attack multiple times be put down. I say if you play with carnivores big enough to pick you up in their mouth you are a dumbass and nature is weeding out the stupid.

Whales and dolphins are very intelligent mammels. They don't belong in a large swimming pool, preforming tricks for thousands of people and making tons of money for Sea World. Does anyone remember Keiko from "Free Willy" fame? The Oregon Coast Aquarium built a special tank for him and rescued him from a filthy dump in Mexico. They rehabilitated him and let him go in the wild near Iceland where he was captured when he was very young. I saw him in Oregon and he was magnificant. His skin conditions cleared up and he learned to hunt for live fish instead of having dead fish thrown at him. He has since died but at least he died in the ocean where he belonged. By the way, did you know that even though they are called killer whales they are really the largest member of the dolphin family?

I don't much care for man trying to turn whales, lions, elephants, and tigers into side shows and don't get a bit upset when one of these kings of nature kicks someone's ass.

Interesting tidbit Lyric

lyric wrote:

Does anyone remember Keiko from "Free Willy" fame? The Oregon Coast Aquarium built a special tank for him and rescued him from a filthy dump in Mexico. They rehabilitated him and let him go in the wild near Iceland where he was captured when he was very young.

I recall this story, but hadn't heard how it turned out. I heard it shortly after his rescue. Pretty disgusting that someone made big money off of him and then let him be treated like crap.

I found my notebook with all my info on Keiko. He was born in Iceland in 1977 or 78 and caught for the aquariun industry in 1979. He was brought to Oregon in 1996 where he stayed till 1998 when after gaining back his health he was flown back to his birthplace. While in Iceland he was kept in an enclosed cove for further training and released in mid 2002. From there he swam to Norway's west coast where he still craved human interaction. It was hard for him to not be around humans after being in captivity for 25 years. He would swim up to small boats and people even swam with him riding on his back. Authorities had to ban people from approaching him. Shortly thereafter he became listless and his trainers started feeding him 175 pounds of fish a day. In December of 2002 his trainers led him to a protected cove where he stayed till he died of pneumonia in December of 2003. This was truly a special Orka who loved people. It was a shame he was treated so bad for so many years. Even after the way he was treated he still wanted to be with people. Says a lot for the animal kingdom.

Pretty sad. Sea mammals are communal by nature. I may like a good steak, and I'm certainly no PETA fan. But the way man uses and then discards animals that see him as a friend can be pretty crappy.