Meet SeaWorld’s Most Infamous Killer Whale 🐋🌊 | Case Study: Tilikum

No matter what you think of ‘Blackfish’ as a documentary, we can’t deny that opening conversation around Tilikum and his life changed the game for how people view and talk about orcas in captivity.

It is a shining example of how individuals can engage people in animal welfare. Often, we can struggle to understand these issues, but when we have an individual - a story - to help us, it becomes almost impossible to, well, not care.

This post comes at an apt time, shortly after the death of Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut/Tokitae. Dubbed ‘the worlds loneliness Orca’ Tokitae recently died after more than 50 years living isolated in a cramped tank. All this time later, we are still fighting for these incredibly intelligent and social animals to have the kind of life they deserve - one of freedom.

Hopefully Tilikum acts as a reminder that these animals are individuals, with lives, emotions, and stories of their own. Please do not support venues that keep orcas for display and entertainment.

📚:
If you’d like a more in-depth look at Tilikum’s story, then as well as ‘Blackfish’ you can read about the experience of a Sea World trainer in John Hargrove’s ‘Beneath the Surface’ and about the events leading up to the final death Tilikum was involved in - his longterm trainer Dawn Brancheau - in David Kirby’s ‘Death at SeaWorld’.

[juniorstoyland]

Tilikum is still alive they release him back in to the wild

[jeanngabo]

And then u got people judging others for eating dogs like a dog is the only animal in the animal kingdom with feelings. Come on y’all we got stop this nonsense of mistreating animals. Put them exactly where they belong, we tend to use excuses like if we send them back in the wild they will die. How that fuck do we know that? Send them in their natural habitat cuz I can promise you that even if they don’t survive, that’s okay with cuz they will at least be happy to be free than being caged. It’s just a simple concept of life. Take an example of a slave. No matter what or how u treat them, they’ll never be happy as long as they know they are in captivity