Once again, a captive animal has killed its trainer, and this time, it’s close to home.
On Wednesday, SeaWorld Orlando’s 6-ton killer whale Tilikum killed his trainer during a performance. And this might not be his first offense. In 1991, he was in the water with two other orcas when a trainer was forcibly drowned.
Eight years later, park employees found a dead man draped over Tilikum’s body, though no one knows how he ended up in the water. The Associated Press published a list of notable maulings, and they’re averaging two a year.
So what do we see that the rest of the world seems to be missing? OK, we’ll paint you a picture.
You’re walking to class one day and out of nowhere a giant net scoops you up and puts you in a hot tub. And you live there for the rest of your life. Sure, you’re not so smart. Sure, they give you lots of cupcakes. But you live in a hot tub. And maybe they throw in a random guy you’ve never met.
Is it really surprising that animals that were born to swim thousands of miles or run over expanses of land snap and attack the people who padlock them into cages and confine them to glorified bathtubs? We don’t think so.
Aside from the undeniably unfit enclosures zoo animals are restricted to, the prisoners are expected to perform routines and interact with other animals they might not be paired with in the wild. This causes stress, which causes them to act out.
Until Americans stop imprisoning animals for fun and profit, we can’t blame Tilikum or any other living thing in unjust captivity for lashing out against its captors.
