Tilikum: Serial Killer? Really? Can you blame him?

I'm in the middle of a post about the Olympics, but this is just too much. Any of you who know me really well, know how i feel about Orcas, whales in general (well, giraffes too, but so far no killer giraffes that i know of), and then there are my feelings about wild animals in captivity. Animals that some people believe that they have the right to take out of their natural environment for amusement (masked as education) and financial gain. How arrogant can people be? Why is it our "right"? Just because they are there?

This poor creature needs to go to a whale rehab centre so that he can learn to be self-sufficient again and released back into the wild! I'm sure he is pissed off; after 27 years of having to perform tricks. Makes me wonder if evolution is going to come full circle one day and humans will be the ones in the cages doing tricks. I know it's been portrayed, to some extent, in Planet of the Apes (of which i haven't seen all of the movies) but i get the point. I think it would be fair trade. Taste of our own medicine, so to speak.

There are people who operate aquariums (i have to admit that the Vancouver Aquarium does have a large edutainment component to their facility) and places like SeaWorld who will be touting all of the benefits of having such an animal to "learn from". But wouldn't we actually learn more, if they were filmed, somehow discretely, of how they live and interact in the oceans where they belong? We could make 3D movies.

I hope in the generations to come, that technology will advance enough to allow animals to remain where they are meant to live their lives and we are still able to learn from them. Somehow, make things like photo safaris more accessible or produce 3D adventures and travel to schools and educate students about animals and how they survive (or not) in their original environment. That would be so much more humane. There still may be some human risk involved, but if that's what your passion, then that is your right, just as other professions have risks.

So, tell me what you think? Haven't heard from many of you. Maybe you're all just bored with the Olympic stuff but there will probably be 1 or 2 more posts about it with other photos (i'm gonna try to figure out tomorrow how to post photos here) and then i will move onto more topics. Promise.