How many tragedies must happen until the captivity of these animals end?

Buenos Aires, February 25th, 2010

The news about the death of a trainer at Sea World in Orlando, due to an attack from a killer whale, makes us again ask dozens of questions regarding the captivity and aquariums.

Dawn Brancheau, a trainer at Sea World in Orlando, Florida, suffered the attack from the animal which ended in a tragic outcome. Unfortunately this is not the first time a trainer is attacked by a killer whale in captivity. Tilikum (the killer whale star of this incident) has already been part of other tragic "accidents".

In nature, Killer whales are considered highly social mammals which remain all their lives with their family group. In captivity, these animals are confined to tanks whose size is impossible to compare with the territory in which they are distributed in their natural habitats. They suffer not only a sharp decline in life expectancy but also high offspring’s mortality. On the other hand, the captivity can generate in these animals, aggressive behaviours towards people or other individuals which they are forced to share their small living space with.

According to data obtained by WDCS (Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society) there are currently 42 killer whales in captivity. Since 1961, at least 136 killer whales were captured for this purpose and 123 of them have died.

At Fundación Cethus we don’t agree about maintaining Cetaceans (whales, porpoises and dolphins - group of which the Killer whale is the largest of its members) in captivity, for many reasons. Unfortunately in case of Killer whales these incidents happened with some frequency, generating not only really risky situations for humans - which often lead to death - but also a bad image for this species, when in fact the conditions generated by captivity are the mainly responsible. What happened is a tragedy whose prevention has no other way but to avoid confinement of animals.