Category Archives: Dolphins

Maybe smarter than humans

Death is Tilikum’s Only Escape From SeaWorld

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By Kirsten Massebeau

Ripped from his family 35 years ago Tilikum the star of the film “Blackfish” has been diagnosed with a deadly respiratory infection that cannot be cured.  SeaWorld continues to update the public trying to convince the world that “they care” but in reality all SeaWorld saw in Tilikum was a river of golden sperm that would further their breeding program. Through constant sexual abuse SeaWorld employees collected sperm artificially inseminating female whales, producing 21 calves within the SeaWorld prison system. Those baby orcas, were then ripped from their mothers sides, and shipped to other SeaWorld’s where they too must perform to eat. Many have died or become aggressive, never knowing a true family or the rhythms of the sea, their true home. They are a generation of slaves born into the SeaWorld prisons.

Sexually Abused Tilikum was SeaWorld’s main victim for their breeding program.

Despite the backlash from the film “Blackfish” documenting the death of Dawn Brancheau, the trainer killed by Tilikum, SeaWorld has made no positive changes for Tilikum or any of the orcas languishing at their many facilities in the United States and abroad.

Tilikum will never know the impact he has made on the captive industry. His story, supported by objective data, details a cruel environment that destroyed an orcas mind and spirit, who was kidnapped at the age of two destined to live out a life of torture, and terror for 35 years, killing three humans beings along the way. His message was loud and clear but SeaWorld and the captive industry would never listen.  Now his only escape is death as he dreams of the Icelandic ocean, the rhythms of the sea, and the family he will never see.

As Tilikum’s condition continues to deteriorate dolphin activist communities and scientists are pledging that they will increase the pressure on the cetacean prison camps and all dolphinariums worldwide. It’s time to empty the tanks and give dolphins and whales the retirement and restitution owed to them by the captive industry which is a failed experiment in every way as evidenced by the tragic life of Tilikum.

Pilot Whale Pod Shattered Forever In The Cove

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By Kirsten Massebeau

A pod of approximately 50 pilot whales was driven into, “The Cove“, netted off and left for the night on November 19th. In years past the dolphin hunters have stated that the mammoth cetaceans, closest cousin to the orca, were much easier to slaughter and capture after a night without food and water. Cove Monitors commented on the Matriarch moving through the pod the previous night, checking on her family.  Nervously she acted as though she knew what lay ahead! There would be no stopping the terror and suffering the dawn would bring.

As the hunters approached in skiffs moving toward the nets in a cold dance of death the exhausted pod panicked realizing the brutality, and carefully calculated torture that would ensue.

The skiffs manned with IMATA certified trainers, the slaughter team, and the cold and cruel hunters on skiffs surrounded part of the pod trapped behind the nets. The horror began as the hunters in black wet suits slipped into the water while the hunters on skiffs  roared their Mercury engines in an effort to drive these highly intelligent beings onto the shore of the killing cove.

For many hours the torture and fight for life would continue. Onlookers watched as the pod was wrenched apart and slowly marched to their death.

Only one juvenile was taken for captivity amidst chaos. The price of this pilot whale to a marine park will pay for the entire slaughter and what seemed an endless season of hunting helpless dolphins.

Again and again, the dolphin hunters callously wrangle a panicked whales into nets with the help of divers as the panicked whales  watch. As blood begins to spill into the water the family fights harder for life without success. The whales are no match for the humans armed with blades and the bamboo plugs that will impede the blood flow.

As the terrorizing of this pod continued the sensitive pilot whales begin to give up.  A whale on his back has accepted there is no hope for his or her family. Their history, their lives are over and he or she knows it.

Tethered by their tails many whales were dragged backwards towards the pithing station under the tarps. Drowning would be merciful compared to the slow and cruel death under the tarps.

Eventually the cove ran red with the blood of these amazing, mammoth individuals. The matriarch and all her family gone forever.

The water became redder and redder as more whales were forced under the killing tarps.

Slowly the five skiffs began to come out from under the tarps loaded with the dead bodies of the pod on their way to the butcher house where they will be packaged and sold.

Is it over? That is yet to be seen as a large portion of the pod remains netted off swimming in the blood of their family. The cold hunters motor by the remaining victims with the bodies of their family, and the matriarch who led them now gone forever. Sadly the hunters left without dropping the nets or releasing the pod, so the fate of the remaining whales who continue to spy hot in a tight cluster is yet to be revealed. They too may be forced to make the death march under the death tarps in the cove, where the slaughterer with his steel pithing blade, and bamboo nails awaits. Continue reading →