Tillikum, or Tilly as he is commonly known, is usually
kept isolated from other whales, and trainers are not
allowed to get in the water with him, because he has a
history of being violent.
The whale was blamed for the drowning
of one of his trainers in 1991 while he was performing
at Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia.
Sold to SeaWorld as a stud in 1992, the whale was involved
in a second incident when authorities discovered the body
of a naked man lying across his back in July 1999.
So, how much do we really know about killer
whales?
Firstly, Orcinus Orca – named after
Orcus, the Roman god of death and the underworld - is
not a whale at all.
Orca is the largest of the dolphin family, and one of
the world’s most powerful predators, sporting teeth
that are up to 10cm long. They can grow to up to ten metres
in length and weigh up to six tonnes.
Orcas’ reputation as fierce hunters
comes in part because they frequently target other marine
animals, regardless of size.
They hunt in groups, much like wolves, and commonly eat
whatever's convenient -- seals, sea lions, squid, fish,
birds, other whales and dolphins.
Imagine the bloody scene of a pack of
killer whales devouring something as large and notorious
as a great white shark, which is also on the killer whales'
takeout menu.
But killer whales do not hunt humans.
There is no record of Orca, in its natural habitat, ever
attacking a human.
In fact, whalers claim that Orcas helped them hunt other
whales.
They used to refer to them as ‘whale killers’,
and somewhere along the line, perhaps through an error
in translation, it got switched around to ‘killer
whales.’
Why then does Tilly attack humans?
Animal rights advocacy group People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals has for years been calling
on SeaWorld to stop confining ocean-going mammals to an
area that to them is like the size of a bathtub.
‘It comes as no surprise when these
huge, smart animals lash out’ PETA said in a statement.
Wouldn’t you lash out after being kept in a bath
tub for 30 years?
