Visiting a zoo is a different experience for many, seeing in person wild animals that seem to only exist on television can seem surreal, but there they are, so close and at the same time so far from human beings.
However, there are social movements that want to abolish these places, because many times they cause them physical ailments like in their behavior to the animals that inhabit the cages.
According to the Zoo Animal Welfare Education Center (Zawec), lack of space, social stress, the presence of visitors, diseases and other health problems are the main challenges to which animals are exposed in these centers.
Tilikum was a male orca who was placed in captivity at the SeaLand of the Pacific, a zoo/aquarium in Victoria, Canada. From his capture to his death, Tilikum attacked three people and became the specimen with the longest history of attacking humans. But to find out why this happened, you have to rewind to 1983.
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A tragedy foretold
I threw the life preserver at him. She was trying to grab the ring, but the whale basically wouldn’t let her
Just two years after arriving in the Icelandic sea, the orca was separated from its parents and taken to a concrete storage tank at the Hafnarfjördur Marine Zoo, near Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. For more than 365 days, Tilikum could only swim in circles as she waited to reach her final destination: Canada.
When he finally arrived at SeaLand of the Pacific, had to share with two females of his kind, Haida II and Nootka IV, who were the dominant ones according to the relationships that this species maintained.
According to the British newspaper ‘Mirror’, the trio he was forced to spend 14 hours in a closed 7.9-meter pool wide known as ‘The module’.
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As if this were not enough torture, Tilikum was attacked by his companions, who attacked him in different areas of his body and generated stomach ulcers from stress.
In order to improve the quality of life for the aquarium animals, the company hired Bruce Stephens, a marine life trainer, to provide some recommendations to help maintain a peaceful environment.
By that time, according to ‘The Sun’, creatures were already ‘stealing’ practice items from their trainers and they got too excited about the things that went into the water.
a tragic fate
On February 20, 1991, 20-year-old Keltie Byrne first entered the SeaLand of the Pacific to work as a part-time trainer while studying marine biology in college.
What she did not imagine was that she would not leave the zoo alive, because Tilikum would drag her to the bottom of the pool, while she cried out: “I don’t want to die”; all in the presence of hundreds of tourists who had gathered to see the show.
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Sealand Park is covering up the incident by saying it was trainer Keltie Byrne who slipped and fell into the pond where the three Orcas participated with Tilikum as the provocateur and where she was eventually drowned.
Internet Photo pic.twitter.com/ScR2GZSmWE
– Cyana All Diving (@CyanaTB_Oficial) June 3, 2020
Drowning due to forced submersion by Orca (killer)
According to the aforementioned medium, Keltie managed to surface twice, amid the panic of the other trainers who tried to help her, but in each of these she was dragged to the bottom by ‘Tili’ – a nickname that gave her their trainers gave – and the other killer whales.
“I threw the life preserver at him. She was trying to grab the ring, but the whale basically wouldn’t let her. For them it was a game session and she was in the water,” said coach Karen McGee for ‘Mirror’.
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Although the zoo initially said that Byrne fell into the pool while walking along the edge, several of the witnesses assured that it had been ‘Tili’ who had dragged her from the edge of the pool and had ‘played’ with her for 10 minutes until she died. The coach’s body was recovered three hours later, after several maneuvers by forensic teams.
“It was a tragic accident,” Sealand’s then-manager Al Bolz told ‘The Seattle Times’: “I just can’t explain it. The whales were just playing around, we’re sorry she drowned.”
The verdict of the forensic investigation revealed that the woman’s cause of death had been: “Drowning due to forced submersion by orca (killer)”.
The report recommended 12 tips to SeaLand of the Pacific to implement in its business, among which were have a person who will be in charge of the safety of the employees during the show and implement a system that would allow whales to be isolated quickly when required.
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Several experts affirmed in the documentary ‘Blackfish’ – which narrated the life of ‘Tili’ – that they believed that the capture and captivity of the aforementioned orca had turned it from an intelligent and sensitive animal to a “psychotic” one, affirmations that SeaWorld has vehemently denied.
The accident duo
Just 18 months after the incident, Sealand closed its doors for good and Tilikum was sent to SeaWorld in Orlando, United States, in an attempt to preserve it.. However, just eight years later, the animal had returned to attack other people in the new locations.
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The second incident takes place on July 6, 1999 surrounded by much speculation and cover-up where Daniel Dukes appears naked on Tilikum’s back at SeaWorld.
internet photos pic.twitter.com/bWZF92mWYX
– Cyana All Diving (@CyanaTB_Oficial) May 15, 2020
According to various American media reports, Daniel Dukes, 27, had visited the park on July 5, 1999 and had managed to violate security to stay in the park past closing time and be able to swim with the whales. It is not yet clear how the man ended up in the pond, since it was found in pieces on the back of the marine animal and it was concluded that he died of hypothermia.
Dawn Brancheau, also a trainer, was Tilikum’s third victim. In 2010, the woman was grabbed by her ponytail and submerged in the pool while she was giving a petting show in February 2010. Brancheau managed to free herself, however, she was grabbed by the waist and shaken several times by ‘Tili’, which caused his death. SeaWorld in Orlando is still open to the public and Tilikum died in 2017 from illness.
The #killer whale on the left side, Tilikum, ended up killing Dawn Brancheau, the woman standing over him.
Captured as a child and separated from his orca family, #Tilikum was forced to participate in shows, relegated to live in a pool: suffering and mistreatment pic.twitter.com/NSRmEy4uP8– Paula Montero (@pauvalpa) October 29, 2021
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