What follows below is an excerpt from an article on Live Trading News.
Did Hollywood Kill Free Willy?
Posted by Shayne Heffernan
It’s a scene etched in the minds of movie-goers: a captive killer
whale vaults over a jetty to the open ocean, free at last to join his
family in the wild.
In real life, however, Free Willy‘s fairy-tale ending never came true. Despite international attention and tens of millions donated to his release, Keiko — the killer whale whose story inspired the Warner Brothers movie and its three sequels — suffered an excruciating, lonely and completely avoidable death.
“The public has been misled about Keiko, and I’m not ok with that,” said veteran animal behaviorist Mark Simmons, author of Killing Keiko, a new book available August 14. Simmons led the Animal Behavior Team charged with Keiko’s release and spent years working in Iceland to prepare Keiko for his return to the wild. Ultimately, the team’s success would prove to be undone by management’s agenda to disregard behavioral science and elevate an urgent need for a timely and Hollywood ending.
“What’s so shocking about this story is that animal-rights activists put their publicity driven agendas over the life of this whale,” said Simmons, one of only a handful of people who’ve had nearly three decades of up-close interaction with killer whales.
Simmons continues, “Keiko endured a long, slow and physiologically punishing death caused by illness, starvation and dehydration. He did not successfully integrate with other whales. He did not learn to forage for food. He never stopped longing for human interaction — something he’d been accustomed to for 20 years.”
In real life, however, Free Willy‘s fairy-tale ending never came true. Despite international attention and tens of millions donated to his release, Keiko — the killer whale whose story inspired the Warner Brothers movie and its three sequels — suffered an excruciating, lonely and completely avoidable death.
“The public has been misled about Keiko, and I’m not ok with that,” said veteran animal behaviorist Mark Simmons, author of Killing Keiko, a new book available August 14. Simmons led the Animal Behavior Team charged with Keiko’s release and spent years working in Iceland to prepare Keiko for his return to the wild. Ultimately, the team’s success would prove to be undone by management’s agenda to disregard behavioral science and elevate an urgent need for a timely and Hollywood ending.
“What’s so shocking about this story is that animal-rights activists put their publicity driven agendas over the life of this whale,” said Simmons, one of only a handful of people who’ve had nearly three decades of up-close interaction with killer whales.
Simmons continues, “Keiko endured a long, slow and physiologically punishing death caused by illness, starvation and dehydration. He did not successfully integrate with other whales. He did not learn to forage for food. He never stopped longing for human interaction — something he’d been accustomed to for 20 years.”
Read the rest of the article here.
Mark Simmons has an industry to protect, as he runs a captive dolphin swim with program. He needs the world to believe cetaceans are better off in captivity to stay in business. That and the fact that he left Keiko when funds ran out and didn't stay with him until he died is making it difficult for me to believe a word he says.
ReplyDeleteMark Simmons has an industry to protect, as he runs a captive dolphin swim with program. He needs the world to believe cetaceans are better off in captivity to stay in business. That and the fact that he left Keiko when funds ran out and didn't stay with him until he died is making it difficult for me to believe a word he says.
ReplyDelete