On February 24, 2010, the killer whale Tilikum completed another wonderful performance at the Ocean Park.
Just as the audience cheered, senior animal trainer Dawn Brancheau was suddenly dragged to the bottom by the killer whale and never surfaced again.
This scene shocked everyone present, and even the operator on the other end of the call asked in disbelief: "A whale ate the animal trainer?"
Dawn Brancheau's entire arm was torn off by the killer whale and was still in Tilikum's mouth when he was salvaged.
This is not the first accident that has happened to the killer whale Tilikum. It has also been involved in two murders before, but both were concealed by stakeholders, so that another tragedy occurred.
The story about this killer whale was recorded one by one in the documentary "Blackfish" . Who would have thought that such a cruel truth was hidden under the cheers.
At that time, the death of Dawn Brancheau shocked all walks of life. Since the killer whale is also known as the "killer whale", many people believed that its uncontrollable wildness caused the accident.
But in fact it is not so simple. There has never been a precedent for "killing" in wild orcas, and the incident cannot be entirely blamed on Tilikum.
The matter has to start with how the killer whale was brutally captured.
To hunt killer whales, fishing boats and planes will drive groups of killer whales into bays and even drop bombs into the water!
But killer whales are also very smart, probably because they often encounter this situation, they can quickly divide into two groups, one group of adult male whales will deliberately show their dorsal fins to attract fishing boats, and the other group of female whales will escape with calves. .
But there are planes watching at all times, how can it be so easy to escape, the fishing team will choose to start with the young whales, and the reason is very simple - the freight is cheap.
When the calf was taken away, the female whale whimpered around it, struggling to call for the calf, but refused to leave...
What's more, the fishing team will cut open the belly of the calf that was seriously injured in the capture process, fill it with stones, and let them sink to the bottom of the sea.
Speaking of which, the diver who participated in the fishing operation that year also bowed his head in shame.
Tilikum is also caught in this way and transported to marine parks in Canada. It was only two years old when it was captured, and it was 3.8 meters long, but it was speculated that it would definitely be a big man in the future. When it first arrived at Ocean Park, it could only live in a very small area.
The first trainer used the "punishment training method" for Tilikum. During the day, he trained it with other experienced killer whales. If he did not perform well, he would be punished. So hungry, I went back to the cage with a size of only 30m*15m*10m.
You must know that adult killer whales are generally 6 or 7 meters long, which means that Tilikum cannot move at all in the cage!
One of the trainers said that Tilikum spent two-thirds of his life in that cage.
In addition, other killer whales are often punished for the poor performance of the newly arrived Tilikum, and they are very dissatisfied with it, often crowding out or even attacking it, causing Tilikum to be often injured at the beginning.
Not only that, but Tilikum's workload is also huge, performing 8 times a day, 1 hour each time, 7 days a week without rest.
The audience was very happy, Ocean Park also made a lot of money, but Tilikum was tortured physically and mentally, and its hidden anger couldn't help but burst out...
The first victim was a 21-year-old part-time animal trainer.
On February 20, 1991, she slipped into a killer whale training pool while at work. Usually she and Tilikum get along very well, but this time, Tilikum kept dragging her to the bottom, preventing her from surfacing to breathe.
The girl shouted "I don't want to die" until she drowned.
Ocean Park Canada blocked the news and sold Tilikum to the public. Since whaling was illegal at the time, the profit-making companies were very melancholy. Orlando Ocean Park heard about the sale of killer whales, and immediately bought Tilikum back and used it to breed more killer whales.
In short, the interest chain of Ocean Park is still extending.
At the time of transfer, Tilikum was an adult and at 12,000 pounds, it was the largest animal in Orlando Marine Park. The new owner claims that the killer whale killings will not happen again and Tilikum will be well taken care of, but in fact it has been trapped in a small place and is very depressed.
Probably because Tilikum learned to be smart, behaved very well and lovable in the new place, and quickly gained everyone's love, plus the trainers didn't know much about the previous accident, which made it all seem extraordinarily harmonious.
It wasn't until 1999 that the accident happened again, and the second victim was a 27-year-old homeless man.
He sneaked into Ocean Park that night and was found dead on Tilikum's back the next day. Ocean Park claimed that the man had mental problems and that the cause of death was hypothermia, but this claim was questioned by the trainers, because the forensic report showed that the homeless man had bite marks on his body, and he did not drink or take drugs. .
Many people said that Tilikum treated him like a toy that night, tossed him to play, and it was a very terrifying process.
However, as mentioned earlier, this huge killer whale is too valuable. Not only can it perform to make money for the Ocean Park, but it can also reproduce offspring. Of course, the Ocean Park must keep Tilikum!
Tilikum has become extremely irritable in the years in captivity, and suffers from severe depression. He has to take medicine at night. This mental state is not suitable for continuing to perform, or even for breeding offspring, but Ocean Park is for its own benefit. All of the above are hidden.
So when we talk about the third accident, trace its essence, it is a crime committed by human greed, and the deceased is very innocent.
Even more frightening is that after the death of the third victim, Dawn Blanche, a spokesperson for Ocean Park claimed that she accidentally slipped into the pool, and then said that her long horsetail was bitten by a killer whale. the accident occurred.
"It's her fault."
These words are really chilling. In the face of interests, people and humanity can be swallowed up by greed.
In fact, there have been many cases of captive killer whales attacking humans. Tilikum is by no means an exception, but most of them have been covered up by various marine parks. After all, is it not for money? !
In addition to these three accidents, the documentary "Black Whale" also exposed many "lies" in marine parks. For example, marine park staff will say that killer whales generally live 25-30 years old. After death, wild killer whales live almost as long as the average human.
The dorsal fins of killer whales in the ocean park will bend down, and the trainers will say that they are bending over to say hello to the audience. In fact, their dorsal fins are failing, but only 1% of wild orcas have this situation and are kept in captivity . The dorsal fin of the male whale is almost 100% depleted , and the condition is very poor.
Captive and trained killer whales endured great pain and lived a short and humiliating life in the aquarium. Human beings are the initiators, some people enjoy the wealth that killer whales bring to them, and the other people enjoy the happiness that killer whales bring to them. kindness.
After this documentary was released in 2013, more and more people spoke out for the protection of killer whales and denounced the behavior of Ocean Park. Under pressure, Ocean Park announced that it would terminate the performance of killer whales in March 2016, and Tilikum also passed away in early 2017. It may be a relief for it, after all, the freedom lost in more than 30 years can at least be regained when the soul returns to the sea.
Later, the United States also completely banned killer whale performances. To some extent, Tilikum has also rescued many of its comrades.
It is often said that "there is no killing without buying and selling", and we are becoming more and more aware that letting animals perform is actually abusing them, so why go to see them?
When diving in the sea, we can see those marine animals are so at ease, they belong to the sea rather than those small and unfamiliar spaces.
Now many ocean parks are beginning to realize this problem. Previously, an ocean park in Shanghai released the Beluga sisters into natural waters, hoping that more places would allow them to return to freedom.
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