Upclose and personal with a Killer Whale

She looks bored..

well if someone wants to claim they aid in conservation, which I've seen several people do, I wish they would state an example. "Stuck" in captivity is exactly it, I don't get how anyone who cares for them doesnt sob at the notion that they are "stuck" in captivity, I would hate being given a life sentence in prison because I was "loved".

Essentially they DO aid in conservation-in one way, and I'll tell you since you seem to be searching for information. Before orca captivity, these animals were seen as mindless killers. Navy ships were sent out with machine guns, ordered to fire at any killer whale, and kids threw rocks at orcas as they passed by the coast. Now we know them to be gentle, intelligent beings fully capable of emotional bonds with humans, which makes many people all the more eager to protect the homes of wild orcas.

Now, as for being stuck in captivity, I care for them ,quite deeply, yet I don't sob over captivity because I know it will achieve nothing. Keiko's release was unsuccessful as he tried to return to humans. There's no hope of most orcas, particularly second-generation captive borns, to be released, as it's the only home that they've known.

Actually that's not true. Keiko was successfully released, he hunted his own food, socialised with other orcas. The reason he didn't join a pod was because he's a transient. He died of a very common disease that many orcas die of - pneumonia. We could have never known how his life would have been if he was captive, however I personally see his release as an amazing success. He lived free for 2 years.

Successfully released? Read the published book about him. He ripped his head open on ice, let children ride on his back, and eventually hung around with his trainers until he died. Yeah that's success all right. It was never confirmed that he was a transient-he passed and lived with transient pods, only to abandon them at the first sign of human contact.

Ripped his head on ice? Ahahahaa! Of course, that's what you pro-caps would say. He was trapped under a layer of ice and tried to surface to breathe and smashed his head against ice. A mistake any friggin animal would make. Hung around with trainers? Naturally, he was friendly to people because he LIVED with people almost all his life. He DID live with other transient pods too. After his release, his skin disease he had cleared up completely. If he was still captive, he'd be suffering and SICK.

Can we try to debate without mockery? Thanks, because otherwise this is done,if you're going to be insulting before anyone has a chance to respond. It's not a mistake any animal would make-they would learn from their mothers as teenagers that ice was dangerous. When this happened, his caretakers could only say "He's learned a good lesson."Because it was something he couldn't be expected to know from captivity, and he paid the price for it.

You've said it yourself-he was friendly to people because he lived with them. That's an extremely dangerous personality trait that couldn't be trained out of Keiko and never was-he kept trying to return to people. His only adventures with transient pods occurred once his trainers had taken off in the boat and he couldn't find humans-the moment a local fishing boat went by he followed it into town.

He's still be suffering and sick? True, his home in Mexico was pathetic at best, and he had to be taken out of there, but he gained weight and length, as well as lost his skin problems, in Oregon, the rehabilitation pool with real seawater pumped in and three trainers to play with. It was there that he regained health, not the wild.