Analysis Of The Documentary 'Blackfish Tilikum'

What is life for an orca really like at SeaWorld? It’s sad, degrading, confining, and tortuous with perhaps a few small glimpses of happiness, depending on the whale and the day. According to the documentary Blackfish, Tilikum, or Tilly as some may have known him as, was an orca whale captured and kept in captivity at SeaWorld, until his death in early January 2017. The documentary reveals that Tilly was taken from his mother as a mere infant. People used nets to corral mother orcas and their young so that the babies would be the only ones to be caught. A man who helped captured Tilly knew he was doing something wrong when he could hear the cries of the mother orcas and their babies communicating during the capturing process (Blackfish). Further,

The methods in which SeaLand used to train the orcas were however very immoral and violated many regulations (Blackfish). Tilly was paired with a larger whale and together they performed the same stunt. If Tilly was not able to match the larger whale, then they would both be punished by starvation. This led the larger whale to become very frustrated with Tilly and as a result, would take out that frustration on him (Blackfish). Tilly would have rakings and open wounds all over his body caused by the teeth of the other whale. For most of his life, the documentary observes, Tilly was kept in a small confined pool. At night the whales would be kept in a metal twenty by thirty-foot pool. The reason behind doing do was because SeaLand officials were afraid people would cut the net to release them

The documentary reports, that over the years Tilly became more aggressive and agitated. Because of Tilly’s massive size and small tank, he essentially had no room to swim freely (Blackfish). When Tilly was transported to SeaWorld, his life was very similar. He still lived in a pool that was way too small for his large size. He was constantly selected for the breeding program at SeaWorld because of his massive size, even though trainers knew of his aggressive and dangerous outbursts. These outbursts have caused more than one person to die. The documentary also reports, that Tilly has even killed one of his own trainers: She drowned as he threw her around the pool, dragging her down to the bottom multiple times. Many people think that Tilly’s aggression stemmed from his life in captivity (Blackfish). A life of confinement, starvation, raking from other whales and being taken from his mother and pack as an infant (Blackfish). Animals should not be subjected to that kind of torture. Zoos and places that hold animals in captivity, originally educational purposes, serve fundamentally entertainment purposes. I contend that places such as SeaWorld, are immoral in regards to animal rights and animal domestication, which leads to the necessity of drastic policy