Free Tilly?
No.
One, he was never free.
Whales born in captivity are the ones we typically see in shows and they are there to promote awareness of the need for wild animals to stay wild and the safety of those animals.
SeaWorld, as a company, does a lot of rescue, rehabilitation and release work with sea life from our local manatees to killer whales.
While the deaths of those individuals is disheartening, one must remember the death in ‘99 was the result of a break-in and the man was found too late.
Yes, Tilikum is huge, and trainers tend to stay out of the tank with him because he, like most killer whales, is intelligent enough to know we don’t belong in the water.
But SeaWorld does a lot of good, and it has very strict safety rules, and people get hurt when they break those rules.
Personally, I don’t think animals should be captive, but I am not naive enough to think it’s not necessary sometimes.
The death of another animal is only more proof we need more information on the care of these animals.
You can’t run around releasing captive- bred and captive-fed animals and expect them to survive.
Editor's note: This letter refers to this editorial.
