Opinion: SeaWorld vs. the Whale That Killed Its Trainer

After spending so long talking about humans and the compassion they have for animals it was strange to shift to an article like this one. There were some instances when we saw compassion for the killer whales, such as the free Willy campaign, but for the most part the article focused mainly on the violence and uncertainty that comes along with captive killer whales. When the author first started to talk about Tilikum on the first page, he mentioned how long he had followed Tilikum’s career. 13 years to be exact and in that time period Tilikum had killed a number of people before killing again in 2010. At this point Tilikum had killed three people. To me it is strange that after the first or even second death that they would still let people be in the water with him. People know exactly what killer whales are capable of doing and yet Sea World and other places still put humans in danger. I am not saying that Sea World is a bad place. I have been there personally and loved it. However, captivity for animals can be very stressful and I don’t think that humans can expect to co-exist peacefully with these animals because that isn’t part of the killer whales nature.

The stress for killer whales living in captivity.

The part in the article that stood out to me the most was when the author wrote about good twin and evil twin. At first I assumed that these two whales were actually twins, but they are not. I understand that the author wanted to make a comparison between Keiko and Tilikum but I don’t think that using the word twin is effective. Twin to me suggests that the whales are more alike that we first expected when in reality they are four years apart and completely different lives in captivity. Even the author says, “my good twin, bad twin story is a fable, and I probably should never have invented it.”

It is crazy to think about what humans have trained these whales to do. Sea World says they only try to utilize methods that are natural to the whales but in the wild whales aren’t required to perform, learn tricks, or give sperm for artificial purposes. It must be frustrating for the whales to not be able to swim free like they want and since Tilikum has been in captivity for 13 years maybe he is a little crazy. Why is it that his “twin” Keiko could be freed but Tilikum, after three murders, is still in captivity? I like how the author kept refereeing back to the film Blackfish because it was able to keep the article all tied together especially with his many different topics. After reading the article I was persuaded to see the film and even look up different videos on YouTube about Tilikum and Keiko. Overall, I like how the article focused on mostly facts even though it was the author’s own opinion.