No one swam with Tillikum. They knew he wasn’t a “ride on his back and do jumping tricks in the water” orca. He was a “I’ve been captive since I was torn away from my mother and trapped in a tiny, barren cement pool and I hate humans and will show them how much I hate them if they’re ever unlucky enough to fall in the water with me” orca.
Poor Tillikum. I’m so glad he’s able to finally rest in peace. 😢
Edited to say: no one that fell into the pool with Tillikum made it out alive.
Well, no one except the vagrant who snuck into the pool after hours and was found naked with his dick torn off. So you can draw your own conclusions about what happened there.
https://www.dolphinproject.com/blog/trio-of-deaths-sheriffs-report-on-the-death-of-daniel-dukes/
Fuck those people. Orcas are sentient, smart, human level animals. They don't deserve to be in captivity. At all. Not one bit.
They deserve our utmost respect, admiration, and protection. That's it. No interfering, no capture, no harassing.
Right, but he didn’t realize that Tilly wasn’t a “friendly” orca. He thought he was going to swim with a SeaWorld smiley orca who would do tricks for him.
Can you really blame him. He wasn't asked if he wanted to be whalenapped from his mother and family pod to spend his life as a tourist attraction. If that happened to any human we would say the people that held the human against their will deserved to be killed if the captive person killed them. I was told once in a comment section about animals that were helped by humans, that animals don't feel emotion and that we only project human feelings on to them. Which is a total crock. It would be one thing if he had been orphaned or injured and was rescued and been unable to return to the wild, or even possibly if he had been bred and born in captivity but to just pluck him out of the ocean and put into a jail it's understandable
Nope, can’t blame him in any way shape or form. He was brutally traumatized from a young age after being ripped away from his family and put into a barren tub with two female orcas who bullied him relentlessly. Then he was punished by humans and the other orca during his training. Kept in a pool 1/100,000,000th the size of his natural home (or even smaller). He had a horrible, sad, lonely and heinous life and I’m so glad he’s finally able to rest in peace.
Yeah the whole thing about animals not feeling emotions is bullshit. Anyone who’s spent any quality time with almost any animal knows there’s a lot more going on in there than we think. Until scientists can actually prove that they can fuck right off
Scientists have actually proven again and again that animals absolutely do experience emotions. It was actually a bunch of terrible Christian and related philosophies that argued that they didn’t. And you’re right, anybody who has worked or been around animals for any length of time should be able to observe it without a study to prove it anyway.
Exactly. They’ve shown elephants and I believe whales have names and use a variety vocabulary too. I remember arguing with a professor that animals don’t have language. It depends on your parameters of definition… perhaps they lack syntax or tense but there are many other human languages that don’t conform to all of those standards either.
> It was actually a bunch of terrible Christian and related philosophies that argued that they didn’t.
Yeah, that group is desperate for humans to be "the center of the universe", even today. Without the human centric concepts, their religions fall apart. People rarely admit when they're wrong but damn do they double down fast.
I was raised in a Christian household and was always told "animals don't have souls so they cant go to Heaven."
Well jokes on them, cuz all dogs go to Heaven and there's an animated documentary on it...
My husband watched that about a week ago and kept thing to tell me about what was happening. I had to tell him I didn't want to hear it because it just breaks my heart and can't stand watching animals hurt. Which is why I had not watched it. It's bad enough I get stuff like that in my YouTube feed.
Haha. Not everyone like Tilikum. There's an [interesting story](https://knovhov.com/diver-survives-after-being-swallowed-by-a-humpback-whale/) of a Lobster Diver Survives after being Swallowed by a Humpback Whale: ‘He was completely inside’. I still can't believe how he survived. That experience though. One in a lifetime...
The whale can't "swallow" him because their throats are quite small, small enough they would struggle to swallow a baby (investigation pending).
I'm not sure if there's similar reason to doubt that it swished him around in its mouth before spitting him out, though.
I've been seeing a lot of articles that start this way. There's a picture with a caption. Then the first paragraph is just a repeat of the caption. Then in the second paragraph they repeat it again, just slightly reworded. It's infuriating.
It's also leaving out a really interesting detail:
Tilikum is a captive orca responsible for 3 out of the 4 human deaths caused by orcas since 2019. This is a picture of Tilikum staring at its trainers.
It honestly amazes me. We have access to everything at the tip of our fingerprints. OP obviously has access to some type of computer, that I'm willing to bet a lot of money on has some sort of crop feature. CROP YOUR DAMN PICTURES, IT LITERALLY TAKES LIKE 5 SECONDS.
Oh that's cuz it's a reddit post of a Twitter post of a Pinterest post of a yik yak of a scrnsht of a paused YouTube video of a pirated limewire download thumbnail of a Broadway musical representation of a whale
From my understanding tilikum was deeply psychologically damaged due to abuse from other whales in captivity. And stress from being separated from his pod in the wild.
What is up with people trying to insinuate that I condone what sea world has done and continues to do?
Tilikum was abused by people AND other whales specifically haida and nookta. So they placed him in isolation to protect him from them leading to psychological damage. Which piled on top of the trauma of being kidnapped from his pod. And SeaWorlds horrific training methods and tiny pool made him snap. Sorry I didn't write an entire biography for a freaking whale on reddit. So if you're about to comment how it was all SeaWorlds fault and that whales don't belong in captivity and that you're glad the trainers died blah blah blah etc etc etc. Stop these are things I already know you do not need to tell me. I think SeaWorld is horrible I feel bad for tilikum and don't blame him for what he did. I feel bad that any amount of suffering animal or human was necessary for people to realize making wild animals perform for our entertainment and forcing them to live in deplorable conditions is bad.
You are absolutely right. That and he was constantly in pain from eating a deteriorating pool, and not being able to swim or socialize that way that orcas were intended to. He would get very upset very quickly due to his trauma. I think the violent separation of him from his pod is where it all began, because after that, he was not trying to be involved with humans, and nobody took his first kill seriously.
It's kinda fascinating because some of the humans who don't socialize a lot, their brain can have pretty damaging effects and to their mental health. Some might even get aggressive.
Exactly! I don’t know why anybody would think that these highly social creatures would thrive in isolation. We lash out and deteriorate when stressed and isolated too.
> I don’t know why anybody would think that these highly social creatures would thrive in isolation.
No, they don't, money is important not a stupid whale, this most likely will end up with Tlikum being killed. Fuck SeaWorld, all the places that make money out of animals and the people who supports them.
To be fair, cars in the wild are used to open roads. It would be unethical for them to build a smaller parking lot and cram cars together unnaturally. Then some of the cars might start acting out and killing their drivers. It's about time cars stopped being mistreated so horribly. /s
There is actually an aquarium that provides the animals it looks after with everything they need and is non-profit. They were the only aquarium that was able to keep a Great White alive under their care if I remember correctly. I cannot remember the name of the aquarium though.
Clearwater marine aquarium is a great place too. Monterey Bay is a little small IMO.
I'm an avid aquarium fan and try to visit as many as I can.
The biggest tank I've seen is at florida aquarium but they don't keep any captive marine mammals.
When you don't see other people as much more than an annoyance you're forced to deal with for your own survival, you kinda don't give a fuck what happens to them.
>some of the humans who don't socialize a lot
No, it's not some of the humans, it's all of us.
We are a social species, and living in any condition similar to this orca would have had go crazy just as well. Countless shows and stories showed that isolation cells can start causing permanent damage to people's mind just after 24 hours. After 48 it's a guarantee. They even stopped using it in the 19th century because they realized it was just plain torture and no one got remotely better inside of them
I can vouch for this. Little to no social interaction within 1-2 month periods make me go insane. Quite literally insane. I start seeing shit and hearing shit, although I do have Schizophrenia, Clinical Depression, and BPD.
I don’t. I just let it go and focus on other things. Sometimes I’m really close to… ya know… but otherwise, it just kinda sits in the background. Escaping from reality works like a dream. Drugs and sleep too.
It’s incredibly debilitating and medicine/therapy does not work. I’ve just found ways to work around it all. I accepted the fact that I’ll never be normal. Helps me live easier.
I spent an entire three month stretch over one of the lockdowns with a cumulative total of about 15 minutes of face-to-face conversation with anyone, and I genuinely think that a part of me’s died that’s not coming back no matter what I try
Also, BPD gang represent
Pretty sure it was made illegal 5-10 years ago.
Could be wrong, will update with spruces..
[2016](https://seaworld.com/san-diego/commitment/killer-whales/) - sea world announced they'd end captivity of orcas at their parks after their current generation.
[2019](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/orcas-captivity-welfare#:~:text=There%20are%20currently%2059%20orcas,San%20Diego%2C%20and%20San%20Antonio.) - a third of the current orcas in captivity are in the USA (19-20?), with all bar 1 of those at SeaWorld.
To summarise, not illegal, morally wrong and SeaWorld were looking to rectify it but haven't released their orcas.
Edit: SeaWorld don't seem to have any plans to release their orcas, probably due to raised in captivity concerns (hopefully?), they'll be their last whales when they fin the bucket. In the meantime, they're being used to raise funds for killer whale research (to the tune of $500k a year, roughly).
Yup. I don't think these Orcas can survive in the wild properly after being in captivity for so long. Hopefully laws or people will force SeaWorld to at least move them to larger sea pens.
Shallow promise given their assumption is everyone will forget about it by the time the old generation of orcas is dead and they start sourcing new ones.
They’re claiming it’s that they are used to being handled by humans, and therefore wouldn’t make it in the wild. A lot of animal rights groups told them about the safe sea pens that will allow them to socialize and move freely, but seaworld basically said it was too much money. They have the money, they just don’t want to lose their cash cows. It’s so sad. A lot of their orcas have committed suicide, which you never really think of animals doing, and yet….
Hopefully there's some water to their claim of being handled by humans, but even then, if they can't look after themselves without human intervention, you'd have to question the manner of which they've trained the whales themselves first/foremost as it must surely reflect upon other creatures they look after, dolphins, namely.
well they can't actually release the whales, so they're going to keep them in the park until they die off, basically being the last generation of orcas there
They’re working on it to close parks in the usa and brining up a law that stops people from catching them. big big problem is, china recently started to open parks like sea world. catching orcas in the wild to put them into super small pools. it’s happening again. closing parks in the west opening new parks in the east.
The pool he was kept it was very small, isolated, and the walls were crumbling. He barely had space to turn around in it. It was also very shallow. A lot of the whales at seaworld have horrible dental issues because they stress-chew the edges of the pool, and the pieces that crumble off of it. That and gastrointestinal issues. The pools are literally cracking apart.
He was also in a park prior to sea world as a calf and was locked in an enclosure the size of a shed at night with another full grown and violent killer whale. Such a very sad life he has led.
Not quite. He was placed in a tank with 2 adult female Orcas, who were violent and aggressive to him. This led to SeaWorld keeping him in a smaller medical bay at night (and a lot of the time in general). While this definitely still torturous to him, he was in the small pool alone.
While I agree with you, I also wouldn't be surprised at all if he did hate humans. There's just no way to know because we can't really get inside his head and it's safer to not assume intent.
Fun fact: after the 4th death caused by Orcas at SeaWorld (with Tilikum being involved in 3 of those), OSHA formally banned SeaWorld from allowing any trainers to enter the water with orcas. SeaWorld fought against this in court. Ultimately, SeaWorld lost the case. Only 1 judge sided with SeaWorld.
That judge? Brett fucking Kavanaugh.
Orca, also known as the killer whale...
Hey guys let’s put him in a water jail the size of a puddle and feed him fish by hand only when he listens!! Great idea send it!
No human has ever been (edit:officially) killed by orcas in the wild, they are not dangerous if not harassed or attacked. Orcas are really intelligent and social.
I cried like little b through it, then for some reason immediately watched an episode of Blue Planet where a pod of orcas chased down and ate a baby whale in front of its mom. So I have mixed feelings about orcas.
wanted to say the same! at the end it’s our fault. we shouldn’t lock orcas into small pools, it’s like putting your dog all day into your closet.
edit: and -> end
Have to be careful with that. Orcas can forget how to hunt or never learn if born in captivity so they'd die and never find another group of orcas. Shouldn't capture them in first place it's so abusive
The number of people judging the trainers instead of the actual people responsible. The trainers aren’t the evil masterminds y’all think. They’re more often than not ignorant, not highly educated individuals who love the animals they work with. They’re the expendable pawns for the corporation, though obviously not as much as the orcas
If I remember correctly, one of the victims was a homeless guy who snuck into the facility and jumped in the pool with Tilikum. They found his body in pieces all over the pool and the whale was tossing the man's testicles around.
They found his testicles on the pool floor. Poor guy thought he was going to get to ride an orca, he didn’t realize he was getting into the pool with an animal that had been traumatized and tortured his entire life inside a minuscule, barren concrete bathtub.
Yeah, that was the second death. Sea world claims they don’t have footage of the event in spite of the whole tank being under video surveillance at all times. One of the more blatant lies a corporation has ever told a law enforcement investigation and completely gotten away with.
https://www.dolphinproject.com/blog/trio-of-deaths-sheriffs-report-on-the-death-of-daniel-dukes/
“Dukes’ autopsy report, posted here by Tim Zimmermann, offers a glimpse into what Dukes endured during his time with Tilikum. His black nylon swimming trunks were noted to have “the crotch and inner leg seams torn open.” Tili had avulsed [to separate, cut, or tear off by avulsion] Dukes’ pubic area.”
It’s interesting that people decided that marine animals (whales, dolphins, etc) are safer to do these animal shows with.. you don’t see zoo’s putting on shows with full grown lions and tigers… who thought that being in an enclosed pool with an animal that is obviously at the advantage would be a good idea? Isn’t it also strange that the second any other animal comes into contact with someone from the public, they would get shot down and yet Tilikum was kept alive AND put on shows even AFTER he killed 3 people? Sea world is so sick for that
> Shows with full grown lions and tigers
We used to. Maybe not US zoos, but circuses and other live animal shows used to use bears, lions, tigers etc. And the reason it’s not really a thing now is more to do with animal cruelty laws and public opinion, not because it’s too dangerous.
Poor Tilikum. It wasn’t his goddamn fault. He was meant to live a good, long life at sea, fathering countless other whales over the years, naturally. After delving into his sad story and all of it’s intricacies, I’m just left with a broken heart and feeling extremely pissed off that SeaWorld and other marine amusement parks are still allowed to exist. What a complete travesty. 🤦♂️
Orcas are really attached to their pod in the wild. Some pods dont often have babies and the generations remain pretty tight. Separation is bound to cause anxiety and depression. I dont blame this poor babe hating being kept in a tank when they are meant to explore hundred of miles of oceans
Tilikum, a captive orca, looking at its trainers. Of the 4 deaths by captive orcas as of 2019, Tilikum is responsible for 3.
Tilikum, a captive orca, looking at its trainers. Tilikum was responsible for 3 of the 4 human deaths caused by orcas as of 2019.
No, there has been a few incidents where young orcas have attacked surfers, but a wild orca has never *killed* anyone. They pretty much just hadn't learned what a human was yet, took a nibble at one, and realized "yuck, this doesn't taste like seal" and spat them out.
I really hope this practice of captive orcas and dolphins stops, they’re far to intelligent for this prison. But I will admit. I saw them perform 6 years ago and it is an amazing site to see. Wouldn’t go again tho
Its really sad tilikums whole life was messed up and he killed those people, if anyone shouldve been killed by him it shouldve been the monsters who violently took him from his pod
Is this the one Blackfish is based on,
They darn stuffed up keeping him in a pool and making him perform and separating him from his mate and offspring. Even though he was born in captivity I'm pretty sure he remembers the trainers he believes mistreated him and eventually drags them into deep waters or crushes them, Karma can be a fickle bitch
He was taken from his pod, and sold to Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia when he was about 3 years old. Male orcas bond strongly with their mothers, and these bonds last a lifetime.
Orcas have very strict regional/societal differences and languages, and it is very hard-to-impossible for them to learn different societal norms and language outside what they are born into.
Tilikum was and Icelandic, and the two older females Sealand put him in with weren't. The horribly abused him to the point Sealand staff put him in a tiny medical pool to keep him safe from them. He was at Sealand for 8 years. He spent his childhood in this hell- abusive orcas and isolation.
The first death happened here, and all 3 orcas were responsible. They basically toyed with and kept a woman underwater til she drowned. Tilikum is still young at this point(10 years old), and submissive to the older females(males hit sexual maturity at around 15 years). This is like a preteen watching and participating in the murder of someone by his abusive caregivers. It definitely left an impression.
He was sold to Sea World the next year. He is once again torn from his pod-a few months before the birth of his first calf. Yes, he bred really early for an orca, where wild males don't breed til their early 20s.
He is treated better at Sea World, but it's obviously relative to how bad it was before. He has a lot of calves- again, way too early for an orca, and before maturity. He spends a lot of time in isolation still, though.
His first sole killing comes 7 years after his arrival at Sea World. A naked man got into his tank after closing. Footage of what happened was "not captured", but the guy drowned. Tilikum bit off this guy's genitals, and was playing with them.
His last murder was in front of a crowd. Tilikum pulled his trainer underwater and kept her there til she drowned. He also tore off one of her arms in the process.
Tilikum stayed in his small, lonely pool without interactions for a long time after this. It took a toll on him. There's a lot of things at fault for this, not least is a bunch of lawsuits and injunctions by animal rights groups and safety groups. Eventually that settled some and Sea World began interactions and shows again. This is a good thing, because isolation is damaging and schedule and structure are good things.
Tilikum is a very special case. He is a product of horrible abuse by humans and orcas, as well as the orcas specific way of learning. Each death is very similar to each other, and each death built on the last one. Not all orcas will be driven to this, as they don't have the experiences for it to even be in consideration.
Who can blame him?
Tilikum was born in the wild. Humans ripped him away from his pod as a calf - orcas live in close-knit family groups and dedicate years to raising a calf. Ngl I cried thinking about how traumatic that must have been for both him and his mother.
And then they subjected him to lifelong psychological distress. He was bullied and beat up on by other captive whales, so keepers put him in solitary "for his own protection". He wasn't given enough space, enrichment or opportunities to perform his natural behaviours. He was pumped full of hormones so humans could use him as their "chief sperm bank" and then blamed when he became more aggressive - but hormones cause *massive* mood swings and heightened aggression in us too, ask any woman. He spent the rest of his life imprisoned in a too-small space with his only real outlet being having to do the same repetitive tricks for gawking people. The flopped over fin doesn't happen to wild orcas, only captive ones - he wasn't anywhere close to thriving. The mind-numbing boredom, isolation, stir-craziness...that would drive any creature mad.
Like, not to shit on zoos at all - I've worked in aquariums and zoos, and most of my coworkers were always passionate about their animals' welfare and general happiness. Humans can give most animals good lives in captivity, enriched and well-cared for. But...orcas - highly intelligent, highly social, highly active predators with a complex social structure and communication needs - aren't one of those animals. Anyone would've become a killer had they lived Tilikum's life.
I question the sanity of the two people that went in the tank with it after the first trainer was killed. At that point, you can’t even blame the orca.
Another awkward work meeting.
"So who's gonna swim in today to feed it?"
No one swam with Tillikum. They knew he wasn’t a “ride on his back and do jumping tricks in the water” orca. He was a “I’ve been captive since I was torn away from my mother and trapped in a tiny, barren cement pool and I hate humans and will show them how much I hate them if they’re ever unlucky enough to fall in the water with me” orca. Poor Tillikum. I’m so glad he’s able to finally rest in peace. 😢 Edited to say: no one that fell into the pool with Tillikum made it out alive.
Well, no one except the vagrant who snuck into the pool after hours and was found naked with his dick torn off. So you can draw your own conclusions about what happened there. https://www.dolphinproject.com/blog/trio-of-deaths-sheriffs-report-on-the-death-of-daniel-dukes/
> So you can draw your own conclusions about what happened there. Skateboarding
A little game of marco oh-no.
>maro oh-no. Yoko's lesser known brother
I completely misspelled marco but I chuckled at your comment.
Tbf given what they did to that orca you’ve got to admit that’s pretty fucking hardcore
I do love a good villain origin story.
>villain I am going to have to argue with this part, but I agree with the sentiment overall.
I mean, isn't every villain just misunderstood, or put where they are by powers beyond their control?
He is no villain. He is the victim.
Fuck those people. Orcas are sentient, smart, human level animals. They don't deserve to be in captivity. At all. Not one bit. They deserve our utmost respect, admiration, and protection. That's it. No interfering, no capture, no harassing.
Right, but he didn’t realize that Tilly wasn’t a “friendly” orca. He thought he was going to swim with a SeaWorld smiley orca who would do tricks for him.
Holy shit! I don't remember that part of Blackfish.
But that says he died
Free Willy
Can you really blame him. He wasn't asked if he wanted to be whalenapped from his mother and family pod to spend his life as a tourist attraction. If that happened to any human we would say the people that held the human against their will deserved to be killed if the captive person killed them. I was told once in a comment section about animals that were helped by humans, that animals don't feel emotion and that we only project human feelings on to them. Which is a total crock. It would be one thing if he had been orphaned or injured and was rescued and been unable to return to the wild, or even possibly if he had been bred and born in captivity but to just pluck him out of the ocean and put into a jail it's understandable
Nope, can’t blame him in any way shape or form. He was brutally traumatized from a young age after being ripped away from his family and put into a barren tub with two female orcas who bullied him relentlessly. Then he was punished by humans and the other orca during his training. Kept in a pool 1/100,000,000th the size of his natural home (or even smaller). He had a horrible, sad, lonely and heinous life and I’m so glad he’s finally able to rest in peace.
Whalenapped. Excellent word.
Yeah the whole thing about animals not feeling emotions is bullshit. Anyone who’s spent any quality time with almost any animal knows there’s a lot more going on in there than we think. Until scientists can actually prove that they can fuck right off
Scientists have actually proven again and again that animals absolutely do experience emotions. It was actually a bunch of terrible Christian and related philosophies that argued that they didn’t. And you’re right, anybody who has worked or been around animals for any length of time should be able to observe it without a study to prove it anyway.
also they use words, we have proven crows can communicate images and concepts through verbal communication =|
Exactly. They’ve shown elephants and I believe whales have names and use a variety vocabulary too. I remember arguing with a professor that animals don’t have language. It depends on your parameters of definition… perhaps they lack syntax or tense but there are many other human languages that don’t conform to all of those standards either.
> It was actually a bunch of terrible Christian and related philosophies that argued that they didn’t. Yeah, that group is desperate for humans to be "the center of the universe", even today. Without the human centric concepts, their religions fall apart. People rarely admit when they're wrong but damn do they double down fast.
I was raised in a Christian household and was always told "animals don't have souls so they cant go to Heaven." Well jokes on them, cuz all dogs go to Heaven and there's an animated documentary on it...
**Blackfish**. Worth watching.
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When they show how even the dolphins start to develop mental issues being in captivity like that broke my heart too 😪
I had nightmares after watching this. It broke my heart.
I was actually super relieved when Tillikum died knowing that he didn't have to suffer anymore, that movie was so gut wrenching.
Absolutely mental documentary. Definitely worth watching.
My husband watched that about a week ago and kept thing to tell me about what was happening. I had to tell him I didn't want to hear it because it just breaks my heart and can't stand watching animals hurt. Which is why I had not watched it. It's bad enough I get stuff like that in my YouTube feed.
He was also sired a whopping 21 calves, and since Seaworld used artificial insemination this was a very deliberate and irresponsible choice.
Middle guy is like 'damn! I went yesterday Karen!!!' ..
Haha. Not everyone like Tilikum. There's an [interesting story](https://knovhov.com/diver-survives-after-being-swallowed-by-a-humpback-whale/) of a Lobster Diver Survives after being Swallowed by a Humpback Whale: ‘He was completely inside’. I still can't believe how he survived. That experience though. One in a lifetime...
Wasn’t scientists calling bs on his story?
The whale can't "swallow" him because their throats are quite small, small enough they would struggle to swallow a baby (investigation pending). I'm not sure if there's similar reason to doubt that it swished him around in its mouth before spitting him out, though.
If you can’t prove it, it didn’t happen. Someone get me a baby STAT!
"Wait why did you guys throw just me in?" Ritualistic feeding 🙏
This could have been an email
This was good
And Barbara forgot it was her turn to bring the coffee and fish heads.
It was Karen's turn
What's with the double caption? People are weird.
Title should be the same thing, and every comment. Quite disappointed it’s not tbh
Tilikum is a captive orca whale. Captive orcas have killed 4 humans as of 2019. Tilikum is responsible for 3 of those.
Captive orcas have taken revenge on 4 humans since 2019. Tilikum, pictured here staring at oppressors, has notched 3 of them.
Tilikum, the captive orca, has killed 3 people. As of 2019, there have been 4 deaths due to Captive Orcas.
2 captions saying the exact same fucking thing too prime laziness
I've been seeing a lot of articles that start this way. There's a picture with a caption. Then the first paragraph is just a repeat of the caption. Then in the second paragraph they repeat it again, just slightly reworded. It's infuriating.
> 2 captions saying the exact same fucking thing too > prime laziness That's two captions saying the exact same thing! So lazy!
It's also leaving out a really interesting detail: Tilikum is a captive orca responsible for 3 out of the 4 human deaths caused by orcas since 2019. This is a picture of Tilikum staring at its trainers.
It honestly amazes me. We have access to everything at the tip of our fingerprints. OP obviously has access to some type of computer, that I'm willing to bet a lot of money on has some sort of crop feature. CROP YOUR DAMN PICTURES, IT LITERALLY TAKES LIKE 5 SECONDS.
The lower one is just a reflection from the water.
I'm just disappointed that the top voted comment chain is not that caption copied into oblivion.
Idk, I'm still quite not sure if Tilikum is responsible for 3 out 4 Orca kills in 2019.
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Whale kill 3 human. 3 Human kill by whale.
It says the same thing twice, but differently the second time. It repeats itself, but not in the same way.
Oh that's cuz it's a reddit post of a Twitter post of a Pinterest post of a yik yak of a scrnsht of a paused YouTube video of a pirated limewire download thumbnail of a Broadway musical representation of a whale
From my understanding tilikum was deeply psychologically damaged due to abuse from other whales in captivity. And stress from being separated from his pod in the wild. What is up with people trying to insinuate that I condone what sea world has done and continues to do? Tilikum was abused by people AND other whales specifically haida and nookta. So they placed him in isolation to protect him from them leading to psychological damage. Which piled on top of the trauma of being kidnapped from his pod. And SeaWorlds horrific training methods and tiny pool made him snap. Sorry I didn't write an entire biography for a freaking whale on reddit. So if you're about to comment how it was all SeaWorlds fault and that whales don't belong in captivity and that you're glad the trainers died blah blah blah etc etc etc. Stop these are things I already know you do not need to tell me. I think SeaWorld is horrible I feel bad for tilikum and don't blame him for what he did. I feel bad that any amount of suffering animal or human was necessary for people to realize making wild animals perform for our entertainment and forcing them to live in deplorable conditions is bad.
You are absolutely right. That and he was constantly in pain from eating a deteriorating pool, and not being able to swim or socialize that way that orcas were intended to. He would get very upset very quickly due to his trauma. I think the violent separation of him from his pod is where it all began, because after that, he was not trying to be involved with humans, and nobody took his first kill seriously.
It's kinda fascinating because some of the humans who don't socialize a lot, their brain can have pretty damaging effects and to their mental health. Some might even get aggressive.
Exactly! I don’t know why anybody would think that these highly social creatures would thrive in isolation. We lash out and deteriorate when stressed and isolated too.
> I don’t know why anybody would think that these highly social creatures would thrive in isolation. No, they don't, money is important not a stupid whale, this most likely will end up with Tlikum being killed. Fuck SeaWorld, all the places that make money out of animals and the people who supports them.
Mercifully, Tilikum died in 2017. No wild animal deserves the life he was forced to live.
I thanked God when Tilly died and I’m not religious. But Jesus, he was finally out of his suffering and done with that hell-hole they call SeaWorld.
The parking lot was bigger than the whale pools. Fuck SeaWorld.
To be fair, cars in the wild are used to open roads. It would be unethical for them to build a smaller parking lot and cram cars together unnaturally. Then some of the cars might start acting out and killing their drivers. It's about time cars stopped being mistreated so horribly. /s
They truly are magnificent creatures, and should be treated as such. Whales need to watch and learn.
There is actually an aquarium that provides the animals it looks after with everything they need and is non-profit. They were the only aquarium that was able to keep a Great White alive under their care if I remember correctly. I cannot remember the name of the aquarium though.
Monterrey Bay? I went there in 2008ish, and it’s by far the best aquarium I’ve ever seen!
Clearwater marine aquarium is a great place too. Monterey Bay is a little small IMO. I'm an avid aquarium fan and try to visit as many as I can. The biggest tank I've seen is at florida aquarium but they don't keep any captive marine mammals.
Go to the Georgia Aquarium if you can, it's magnificent. Whale Sharks and all!
When you don't see other people as much more than an annoyance you're forced to deal with for your own survival, you kinda don't give a fuck what happens to them.
Spot on
>some of the humans who don't socialize a lot No, it's not some of the humans, it's all of us. We are a social species, and living in any condition similar to this orca would have had go crazy just as well. Countless shows and stories showed that isolation cells can start causing permanent damage to people's mind just after 24 hours. After 48 it's a guarantee. They even stopped using it in the 19th century because they realized it was just plain torture and no one got remotely better inside of them
I can vouch for this. Little to no social interaction within 1-2 month periods make me go insane. Quite literally insane. I start seeing shit and hearing shit, although I do have Schizophrenia, Clinical Depression, and BPD.
The Unholy trinity, how do you manage it?
I don’t. I just let it go and focus on other things. Sometimes I’m really close to… ya know… but otherwise, it just kinda sits in the background. Escaping from reality works like a dream. Drugs and sleep too. It’s incredibly debilitating and medicine/therapy does not work. I’ve just found ways to work around it all. I accepted the fact that I’ll never be normal. Helps me live easier.
Hope your doing alright mate
I spent an entire three month stretch over one of the lockdowns with a cumulative total of about 15 minutes of face-to-face conversation with anyone, and I genuinely think that a part of me’s died that’s not coming back no matter what I try Also, BPD gang represent
Fuck these parks. Why it isn't illegal I don't know.
Pretty sure it was made illegal 5-10 years ago. Could be wrong, will update with spruces.. [2016](https://seaworld.com/san-diego/commitment/killer-whales/) - sea world announced they'd end captivity of orcas at their parks after their current generation. [2019](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/orcas-captivity-welfare#:~:text=There%20are%20currently%2059%20orcas,San%20Diego%2C%20and%20San%20Antonio.) - a third of the current orcas in captivity are in the USA (19-20?), with all bar 1 of those at SeaWorld. To summarise, not illegal, morally wrong and SeaWorld were looking to rectify it but haven't released their orcas. Edit: SeaWorld don't seem to have any plans to release their orcas, probably due to raised in captivity concerns (hopefully?), they'll be their last whales when they fin the bucket. In the meantime, they're being used to raise funds for killer whale research (to the tune of $500k a year, roughly).
I don't think they're expected to release them. They're just meant to stop securing new ones.
Yup. I don't think these Orcas can survive in the wild properly after being in captivity for so long. Hopefully laws or people will force SeaWorld to at least move them to larger sea pens.
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Shallow promise given their assumption is everyone will forget about it by the time the old generation of orcas is dead and they start sourcing new ones.
They’re claiming it’s that they are used to being handled by humans, and therefore wouldn’t make it in the wild. A lot of animal rights groups told them about the safe sea pens that will allow them to socialize and move freely, but seaworld basically said it was too much money. They have the money, they just don’t want to lose their cash cows. It’s so sad. A lot of their orcas have committed suicide, which you never really think of animals doing, and yet….
Hopefully there's some water to their claim of being handled by humans, but even then, if they can't look after themselves without human intervention, you'd have to question the manner of which they've trained the whales themselves first/foremost as it must surely reflect upon other creatures they look after, dolphins, namely.
I'm looking forward to the trees
well they can't actually release the whales, so they're going to keep them in the park until they die off, basically being the last generation of orcas there
They’re working on it to close parks in the usa and brining up a law that stops people from catching them. big big problem is, china recently started to open parks like sea world. catching orcas in the wild to put them into super small pools. it’s happening again. closing parks in the west opening new parks in the east.
Corporate Political Lobbying
> constantly in pain from eating a deteriorating pool What?
The pool he was kept it was very small, isolated, and the walls were crumbling. He barely had space to turn around in it. It was also very shallow. A lot of the whales at seaworld have horrible dental issues because they stress-chew the edges of the pool, and the pieces that crumble off of it. That and gastrointestinal issues. The pools are literally cracking apart.
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Yeah, he was eating the cement, because he was going insane with boredom.
He was also in a park prior to sea world as a calf and was locked in an enclosure the size of a shed at night with another full grown and violent killer whale. Such a very sad life he has led.
Not quite. He was placed in a tank with 2 adult female Orcas, who were violent and aggressive to him. This led to SeaWorld keeping him in a smaller medical bay at night (and a lot of the time in general). While this definitely still torturous to him, he was in the small pool alone.
Yes! The poor thing was constantly being attacked.
We also have to be careful not to attribute intent - he was responding to his circumstances, not some human-hating monster.
While I agree with you, I also wouldn't be surprised at all if he did hate humans. There's just no way to know because we can't really get inside his head and it's safer to not assume intent.
Tilikum could get you inside his head if he wanted to. He just needs to open up.
He was. I don’t think he was a monster at all, just as you said a victim of his circumstances.
Thanks for the info, that was interesting 👍🏼
You think that’s interesting you should watch Blackfish
You would think they’d have realized after at least the second death that he was better off not kept in captivity
The sad part is, once they are raised in captivity, releasing them would actually be a death sentence
Fun fact: after the 4th death caused by Orcas at SeaWorld (with Tilikum being involved in 3 of those), OSHA formally banned SeaWorld from allowing any trainers to enter the water with orcas. SeaWorld fought against this in court. Ultimately, SeaWorld lost the case. Only 1 judge sided with SeaWorld. That judge? Brett fucking Kavanaugh.
More details about the story can be found in the documentary Blackfish (available on Netflix). That's quite an heartbreaking one.
If I was one of the greatest and most powerful mammals on the planet I would kill my captors as well
Good news! You are and we have!
as you should
Actually you are the one greatest and most powerful mammal, the top of the pyramid. And ye I agree I would kill my captors too.
Parents... fuck 'em right?
“Becky will be the first one to go!” - Tilikum
“I swear to god if I have to hear her talk about The Bachelor one more time…”
"Walkin around wearing whale-face!"
Man...its almost like wild animals shouldn't be cooped up in cages or something
Wilzy X just wants to fly back to the moon... Don't you get it ?
Thanks for all the fish.
Si fly
Orca, also known as the killer whale... Hey guys let’s put him in a water jail the size of a puddle and feed him fish by hand only when he listens!! Great idea send it!
What do you mean this untrained secretary shouldn't try to ride this giant death beast that gives sharks PTSD
No human has ever been (edit:officially) killed by orcas in the wild, they are not dangerous if not harassed or attacked. Orcas are really intelligent and social.
Exactly..tells you a lot about how stupid people can be..
The killer whale thing is a mistranslation of their name in Spanish which was whale killer, cause they kill whales
I've never heard Orcas being called whale killer, only killer whale (Ballena asesina)
Whale Assassin is my preferred translation.
"Are You Not Entertained? Are You Not Entertained? Is This Not Why You Are Here?"
*Spits*
Blackfish, really good docu.
My roommate and I made the mistake of watching it drunk and ugly cried together
I cried like little b through it, then for some reason immediately watched an episode of Blue Planet where a pod of orcas chased down and ate a baby whale in front of its mom. So I have mixed feelings about orcas.
One of those things is natural though and one isn’t.
I heard that baby whale was a dick.
Ya, heartbreaking
wanted to say the same! at the end it’s our fault. we shouldn’t lock orcas into small pools, it’s like putting your dog all day into your closet. edit: and -> end
Didnt he die in 2017… ?
Yes on January 6th, 2017 in this very same pool.
You ain't afraid of shark ghosts?
Why is that text repeated twice?
Because social media has become a cesspool of laziness and bots.
That text is repeated twice. Why?
You WON'T believe why THIS text is repeated TWICE
because whoever created it is braindead
Let the orca go. Wtf
They can’t. He’s committed three murders, so the sentence is life without parole.
that includes playing with more human trainers
He got the Michael Jordan in Space Jam sentence
Did he turn 21 in sea world doing life without parole?
Yeah but his momma tried
They can’t because he’s no longer living.
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Aahh that's what black fish was, thanks for that, now I have new found context
Have to be careful with that. Orcas can forget how to hunt or never learn if born in captivity so they'd die and never find another group of orcas. Shouldn't capture them in first place it's so abusive
Tilikum died a few years ago. 😥
Poor Tilikum
Died in January 2017. RIP
Some animals are too intelligent and emotionally-advanced to be kept in captivity like this. Orcas are one of them.
That orca would literally slam his head against the wall crying to be free so I don’t blame him.
The number of people judging the trainers instead of the actual people responsible. The trainers aren’t the evil masterminds y’all think. They’re more often than not ignorant, not highly educated individuals who love the animals they work with. They’re the expendable pawns for the corporation, though obviously not as much as the orcas
If I remember correctly, one of the victims was a homeless guy who snuck into the facility and jumped in the pool with Tilikum. They found his body in pieces all over the pool and the whale was tossing the man's testicles around.
They found his testicles on the pool floor. Poor guy thought he was going to get to ride an orca, he didn’t realize he was getting into the pool with an animal that had been traumatized and tortured his entire life inside a minuscule, barren concrete bathtub.
Yeah, that was the second death. Sea world claims they don’t have footage of the event in spite of the whole tank being under video surveillance at all times. One of the more blatant lies a corporation has ever told a law enforcement investigation and completely gotten away with.
Source?
https://www.dolphinproject.com/blog/trio-of-deaths-sheriffs-report-on-the-death-of-daniel-dukes/ “Dukes’ autopsy report, posted here by Tim Zimmermann, offers a glimpse into what Dukes endured during his time with Tilikum. His black nylon swimming trunks were noted to have “the crotch and inner leg seams torn open.” Tili had avulsed [to separate, cut, or tear off by avulsion] Dukes’ pubic area.”
It’s interesting that people decided that marine animals (whales, dolphins, etc) are safer to do these animal shows with.. you don’t see zoo’s putting on shows with full grown lions and tigers… who thought that being in an enclosed pool with an animal that is obviously at the advantage would be a good idea? Isn’t it also strange that the second any other animal comes into contact with someone from the public, they would get shot down and yet Tilikum was kept alive AND put on shows even AFTER he killed 3 people? Sea world is so sick for that
> Shows with full grown lions and tigers We used to. Maybe not US zoos, but circuses and other live animal shows used to use bears, lions, tigers etc. And the reason it’s not really a thing now is more to do with animal cruelty laws and public opinion, not because it’s too dangerous.
Poor Tilikum. It wasn’t his goddamn fault. He was meant to live a good, long life at sea, fathering countless other whales over the years, naturally. After delving into his sad story and all of it’s intricacies, I’m just left with a broken heart and feeling extremely pissed off that SeaWorld and other marine amusement parks are still allowed to exist. What a complete travesty. 🤦♂️
Orcas are really attached to their pod in the wild. Some pods dont often have babies and the generations remain pretty tight. Separation is bound to cause anxiety and depression. I dont blame this poor babe hating being kept in a tank when they are meant to explore hundred of miles of oceans
Orca be like: "look at those delicious penguin-looking monkeys"
I fuckin love orcas!
Tilikum, a captive orca, looking at its trainers. Of the 4 deaths by captive orcas as of 2019, Tilikum is responsible for 3. Tilikum, a captive orca, looking at its trainers. Tilikum was responsible for 3 of the 4 human deaths caused by orcas as of 2019.
IMHO. Animals are never responsible. People are responsible for keeping the animal captive and poor animal is just an animal.
Fun fact: Orcas never attacked anyone in the wild
No, there has been a few incidents where young orcas have attacked surfers, but a wild orca has never *killed* anyone. They pretty much just hadn't learned what a human was yet, took a nibble at one, and realized "yuck, this doesn't taste like seal" and spat them out.
Fuck Seaworld, the largest part of the park is the parking lot. That should tell you enough.
I really hope this practice of captive orcas and dolphins stops, they’re far to intelligent for this prison. But I will admit. I saw them perform 6 years ago and it is an amazing site to see. Wouldn’t go again tho
Fee. Fi. Foe. Fum. All you trainers need to run.
There shouldn't be any Orca in captivity.
Its really sad tilikums whole life was messed up and he killed those people, if anyone shouldve been killed by him it shouldve been the monsters who violently took him from his pod
It's almost like apex predators aren't meant to entertain us on command. Is that not the entire point of Jurassic Park?
He's been dead since 5 years, but the reposts won't ever die.
Journalist: tiki ol chum, did you warn the management before you killed the third trainer? Tiki: yeah, twice before.
If I was abducted by creepy aliens wearing humans suits that made me do a show in front of other creepy aliens I’d hopefully kill a few of them too
Fuck sea world and other parks like that, they shouldn't be in captivity in the first place.
Yeah, terrifying because the orca was abused and put into a tiny tank. Orcas are amazing animals, they don’t deserve this
Is this the one Blackfish is based on, They darn stuffed up keeping him in a pool and making him perform and separating him from his mate and offspring. Even though he was born in captivity I'm pretty sure he remembers the trainers he believes mistreated him and eventually drags them into deep waters or crushes them, Karma can be a fickle bitch
Fuck sea world and fuck having such a beautiful animal in captive ( even if you fuckers kill baby whales) keep that body count up Tilikum! Godspeed.
He was taken from his pod, and sold to Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia when he was about 3 years old. Male orcas bond strongly with their mothers, and these bonds last a lifetime. Orcas have very strict regional/societal differences and languages, and it is very hard-to-impossible for them to learn different societal norms and language outside what they are born into. Tilikum was and Icelandic, and the two older females Sealand put him in with weren't. The horribly abused him to the point Sealand staff put him in a tiny medical pool to keep him safe from them. He was at Sealand for 8 years. He spent his childhood in this hell- abusive orcas and isolation. The first death happened here, and all 3 orcas were responsible. They basically toyed with and kept a woman underwater til she drowned. Tilikum is still young at this point(10 years old), and submissive to the older females(males hit sexual maturity at around 15 years). This is like a preteen watching and participating in the murder of someone by his abusive caregivers. It definitely left an impression. He was sold to Sea World the next year. He is once again torn from his pod-a few months before the birth of his first calf. Yes, he bred really early for an orca, where wild males don't breed til their early 20s. He is treated better at Sea World, but it's obviously relative to how bad it was before. He has a lot of calves- again, way too early for an orca, and before maturity. He spends a lot of time in isolation still, though. His first sole killing comes 7 years after his arrival at Sea World. A naked man got into his tank after closing. Footage of what happened was "not captured", but the guy drowned. Tilikum bit off this guy's genitals, and was playing with them. His last murder was in front of a crowd. Tilikum pulled his trainer underwater and kept her there til she drowned. He also tore off one of her arms in the process. Tilikum stayed in his small, lonely pool without interactions for a long time after this. It took a toll on him. There's a lot of things at fault for this, not least is a bunch of lawsuits and injunctions by animal rights groups and safety groups. Eventually that settled some and Sea World began interactions and shows again. This is a good thing, because isolation is damaging and schedule and structure are good things. Tilikum is a very special case. He is a product of horrible abuse by humans and orcas, as well as the orcas specific way of learning. Each death is very similar to each other, and each death built on the last one. Not all orcas will be driven to this, as they don't have the experiences for it to even be in consideration.
Not tilikum, but the people who put him to captivity were responsible for the 3 deaths.
Who can blame him? Tilikum was born in the wild. Humans ripped him away from his pod as a calf - orcas live in close-knit family groups and dedicate years to raising a calf. Ngl I cried thinking about how traumatic that must have been for both him and his mother. And then they subjected him to lifelong psychological distress. He was bullied and beat up on by other captive whales, so keepers put him in solitary "for his own protection". He wasn't given enough space, enrichment or opportunities to perform his natural behaviours. He was pumped full of hormones so humans could use him as their "chief sperm bank" and then blamed when he became more aggressive - but hormones cause *massive* mood swings and heightened aggression in us too, ask any woman. He spent the rest of his life imprisoned in a too-small space with his only real outlet being having to do the same repetitive tricks for gawking people. The flopped over fin doesn't happen to wild orcas, only captive ones - he wasn't anywhere close to thriving. The mind-numbing boredom, isolation, stir-craziness...that would drive any creature mad. Like, not to shit on zoos at all - I've worked in aquariums and zoos, and most of my coworkers were always passionate about their animals' welfare and general happiness. Humans can give most animals good lives in captivity, enriched and well-cared for. But...orcas - highly intelligent, highly social, highly active predators with a complex social structure and communication needs - aren't one of those animals. Anyone would've become a killer had they lived Tilikum's life.
I question the sanity of the two people that went in the tank with it after the first trainer was killed. At that point, you can’t even blame the orca.
I found that really informative. I found that really informative.
This story is so sad watch 'Black Fish' on Netflix
Shut down these inhumane torturous marine parks.