Picture from www.independent.co.uk
My name is Tilikum, I am currently living in SeaWorld Orlando. I am the largest recorded Orca in captivity, I weigh over twelve thousand pounds, and am a lengthy twenty-two feet long. I was captured near Iceland in November 1983 when I was only two years old. I spent almost a year in a cement holding tank before I was sent to SeaLand Of The Pacific in British Columbia. My tank there was only 100x50 feet, and it was only 35 feet deep. Food was withheld from me a lot like a training technique and I was often abused by Haida and Nootka, the two females I lived with. I was forced to perform every hour, eight times a day and seven days a week. After performing I would have to go to a metal-sided module with the other whales for fourteen hours before I could get out again.
On February 21, 1991, my trainer Keltie Byrne fell into the pool, I was so frustrated and sad I pulled her down to the bottom and killed her. Not too long after that SeaLand closed and sold me to SeaWorld. SeaWorld wanted me for their breeding program. I now have lots of children and grandchildren, they make up 54% of SeaWorld's whales. I have been in captivity for a long time and I can get very aggressive. I chew on metal gates and concrete sidewalls. I also killed two more people, Daniel P. Dukes and Dawn Brancheau. After I killed Dawn I was put in a tiny enclosure where I couldn't swim, communicate with the other whales or interact with humans. I floated in that pool a lot and that's very rare for a whale like me. After a year of being alone in that pool, they made me return to performing.
But now I am very sick and have been for a while. I have a drug-resistant bacterial lung infection and I am dying. Please help me, check the link down below.
Sign the petition to get me into a rehab: https://www.change.org/p/seaworld-inc-humanely-release-the-orca-whale-known-as-tilikum-to-a-seapen-for-rehab
On February 21, 1991, my trainer Keltie Byrne fell into the pool, I was so frustrated and sad I pulled her down to the bottom and killed her. Not too long after that SeaLand closed and sold me to SeaWorld. SeaWorld wanted me for their breeding program. I now have lots of children and grandchildren, they make up 54% of SeaWorld's whales. I have been in captivity for a long time and I can get very aggressive. I chew on metal gates and concrete sidewalls. I also killed two more people, Daniel P. Dukes and Dawn Brancheau. After I killed Dawn I was put in a tiny enclosure where I couldn't swim, communicate with the other whales or interact with humans. I floated in that pool a lot and that's very rare for a whale like me. After a year of being alone in that pool, they made me return to performing.
But now I am very sick and have been for a while. I have a drug-resistant bacterial lung infection and I am dying. Please help me, check the link down below.
Sign the petition to get me into a rehab: https://www.change.org/p/seaworld-inc-humanely-release-the-orca-whale-known-as-tilikum-to-a-seapen-for-rehab
