It is with a heavy heart I make this blog post today. This morning Seaworld announced Tilikum has passed away at the hands of captivity. My soul aches knowing he never got the freedom he deserved, taken from the ocean at only 2 years old he never saw his pod or the deep blue ever again. Tili was 36 years old, far too young to go, though SeaWorld claims it is "average," (The average life expectancy for a male Bull Orca is 70 years in the wild.) Tilly struggled with a bacterial infection for months on end, SeaWorld says it could happen in the wild or in "zoological settings."
"While today is a difficult day for the SeaWorld family, its important to remember Tilikum lived a long and enriching life while at SeaWorld and inspired millions of people to care about this amazing species." - SeaWorld Cares
Tilly was taken from his home in Iceland in 1983, he was transferred to Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia. He took is first victim, a trainer by the name Keltie Byrne, pulling her in and drowning her. Soon after the incident, Sealand closed its doors and Tilly was sold to SeaWorld Orlando. He lived out the rest of his life in a 35-foot pool, he was 22 feet long. He performed for years until he took two more victims, a man who trespassed into the park and then in 2010 he took the life of his trainer Dawn Brancheau. After the death of his trainer, Tilly was sentenced to isolation and eventually in March 2011, returned to performing.
On March 19, 2016, Seaworld released their first statement about Tilly's illness, and on June 29, they claimed he was making progress. If they had just let him go to a sanctuary he could have at least been in the ocean one last time, felt the freedom of being home once again. But now it's all over, his passing was unethical, indecent and inhumane, this could have likely been prevented had they shut down the breeding program sooner and got him "world-class" care at a sea sanctuary.
I am deeply saddened and affected by the passing of this beautiful and sensitive, caring creature. There has to be more we can do, we need to work even harder this year to prevent more casualties, fight harder for what we believe in and start a movement. We've gotten the breeding program shut down and the shows canceled but let's take a step further, let's get these whales to the ocean where they belong, we can't wait any longer.
RIP TILIKUM. NOVEMBER 1981-JANUARY 6, 2017
NEVER FORGET.
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