When CNN reported on the Orca at Orlando Sea World last week, didn’t it occur to anyone that this whale may be just ticked off! The idea that this Orca mistook the man who entered the tank for a toy, and played with him under water, takes a lot of explaining, since Orcas and Dolphins in general are fairly sagacious. Perhaps, do you think, it may have something to do with the abnormal environment and the way this whale has been treated all his life?
Maybe this whale is just acting out how he feels. After all, he is being kept as a “breeding whale” in a small tank, and expected to “breed” on command. Do you think he might know that under the latest change in the so-called Marine Mammal Protection Act, his offspring will be legally classified as the property of SeaWorld — in other words, as slaves. [A] report referred to him as “this bull whale,” suggesting he is some kind of cattle. (True enough, trainers and “scientists” carelessly use this term, which was invented by whalers, who did think of whales as a kind of livestock. And until recently, African slaves and their male descendants were referred to as “bulls” and “bucks” in the United States.) And can you read anything into the fact that when people arrived in the morning, the whale was displaying the drowned man on his back, for all to see? (Was it a gesture of sympathy, or an attempted rescue, of which reports have been quite common, or was this bull whale making a point?)
And isn’t it ironic that the one “animal rights” organization CNN interviewed (The Humane Society) complained about “lax security” at the marine theme park! Do you think that maybe the problem may not be keeping people out, but rather keeping the whales in?It seems that even when a whale makes a statement, it has no chance of getting through the media haze.
We say: bull whale!
Francis Jeffrey, CEO
The Great Whales Foundation, Malibu