Free Tilly – and all Circus Animals
Peter Singer
MELBOURNE – Last month, at the Sea World amusement park in Florida, a whale grabbed a trainer, Dawn Brancheau, pulled her underwater, and thrashed about with her. By the time rescuers arrived, Brancheau was dead.
The death of the trainer is a tragedy, and one can only have sympathy for her family. But the incident raises broader questions: was the attack deliberate? Did the whale, an orca named Tilikum and nicknamed Tilly, act out of stress at being held captive in a sterile concrete tank? Was he tired of being forced to perform to amuse the crowds? Is it right to keep such large animals in close confinement?
Tilly had been involved in two previous human deaths. In one episode, a trainer fell into the pool and Tilly and two other whales drowned him. In another, a man who appears to have gotten into the enclosure at night, when Sea World was closed, was found dead in the pool with Tilly. An autopsy showed that he had a bite mark. One of Tilly’s offspring, sold to an amusement park in Spain, has also killed a trainer, as have orcas in other parks.
Richard Ellis, a marine conservationist at the American Museum of Natural History, believes that orcas are smart and would not do such a thing purely on impulse. “This was premeditated,” he told The Associated Press.
We will never know exactly what was going on in Tilly’s mind, but we do know that he has been in captivity since he was about two years old – he was captured off the coast of Iceland in 1983. Orcas are social mammals, and he would have been living with his mother and other relatives in a pod. It is reasonable to suppose that the sudden separation was traumatic for Tilly.
Moreover, the degree of confinement in an aquarium is extreme, for no tank, no matter how large, can come close to meeting the needs of animals who spend their lives in social groups swimming long distances in the ocean. Joyce Tischler, of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, described keeping a six-ton orca in Sea World’s tanks as akin to keeping a human in a bathtub for his entire life. David Phillips, director of the International Marine Mammal Project for the Earth Island Institute, which led the efforts to rehabilitate the orca Keiko – made famous by the movie Free Willy – said “Orcas deserve a better fate than living in cramped pools.”
But if we are pointing the finger at Sea World for what it does to its captive animals, we should also look more broadly at the way we confine performing animals. In most countries, it is possible to visit zoos and see bored animals pacing back and forth in cages, with nothing to do but wait for the next meal.
Circuses are even worse places for animals. Their living conditions are deplorable, especially in traveling circuses where cages have to be small so that they can go on the road. Training animals to perform tricks often involves starvation and cruelty. Undercover investigations have repeatedly shown animals being beaten and given electric shocks.
Several countries – among them Austria, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, India, Israel, and Sweden – ban or severely restrict the use of wild animals in circuses. In Brazil, a movement to ban wild animals from circuses started after hungry lions managed to grab and devour a small boy.
Several major cities and many local governments around the world do not permit circuses with wild animals. Last year, Bolivia became the first country to ban all animals, wild or domestic, from circuses. That decision followed an undercover investigation by Animal Defenders International, which exposed shocking abuse of circus animals. Now the British government is holding a public online consultation on the use of animals in circuses. Many hope it will be a first step towards a ban.
Attempts to defend amusement parks and circuses on the grounds that they “educate” people about animals should not be taken seriously. Such enterprises are part of the commercial entertainment industry. The most important lesson they teach impressionable young minds is that it is acceptable to keep animals in captivity for human amusement. That is the opposite of the ethical attitude to animals that we should be seeking to impart to children.
Nor should we be swayed by the argument that circuses provide employment. The human slave trade also provided employment, but that was no argument for perpetuating it. In any case, in many countries that have restrictions or bans on circuses with animals, human-only circuses have flourished.
There is no excuse for keeping wild animals in amusement parks or circuses. Until our governments take action, we should avoid supporting places where captive wild animals perform for our amusement. If the public will not pay to see them, the businesses that profit from keeping animals captive will not be able to continue. When our children ask us to take them to the circus, we should find out if the circus uses wild animals. If it does, we should explain to our children why we will not take them there, and offer to take them to a circus that does not.
Peter Singer is professor of bioethics at Princeton University and laureate professor at the University of Melbourne. His books include Animal Liberation, In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave, and, most recently, The Life You Can Save.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2010.
www.project-syndicate.org
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FFTMMFA 05:17 08 Mar 10
Would you set this animal loose?
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AE5AAX3SL._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
FFTMMFA 05:18 08 Mar 10
Professor Singer laboriously refers to these animals as Orcas, a term that conjures images of benign porpouses and cute, cudly dolphins. Not once does he call these animals by their rightful name - Killer Whales. This is false and dangerous.
Killer Whales are crazed muderers and the public should be warned! But Professor Singer wants to let these animals loose on an unsuspecting public? Absurd!
Tilly's killed three human beings for Pete's sake! And Professor Singer has the gall to call our treatment of them inhumane? Had Singer any sense, he'd call these killers by their proper name; urge a roundup of all such dangerous animals; call for zoos, aquariums and circuses to be opened in every town; and would lobby each reader to force politicans to add all human killers to the mix, thereby alleviating the problems plaguing America's penal system. Killer Whales, tigers, grizzlies and human
serial killers battling together, now that‘s something I'd pay to see!
By slavishly clinging to his narrow viewpoint, Singer fails to point to the solutions that would not only be right, but entertaining
- think of the people, Professor!
spdickey 05:26 08 Mar 10
Free Tilly? Nice but has too many challenges for success. Great article at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-shamu-seaworld-release-mike-thomas-02220100227,0,4549451.column.
The experiment with Keiko was a failure. After spending millions to rehab the whale in Oregon, the do-gooders airlifted him to Iceland. There, after running out of money, they took the orca out on "walks" where he never socialized with other whales. After "losing him" (and avoiding the need to care for the expensive animal), Keiko turned up in Norway looking for food and companionship from humans. They again netted him off in a bay, and without proper medical care he died soon afterward from a lung infection and pneumonia. Easily treatable if caught in time. He was then buried on land under a pile of ceremonial rocks.
Hardly the fairy tale ending you would want for a marine mammal that has been cared for by people for over thirty years. Even if he doesn't make another dime for Sea World by performing or exhibit, they will still care for him the rest of his life
ChrisBS 06:14 08 Mar 10
I suggest the reason they will 'care form him for life' as noted by spdickey (05:26 08 Mar 10) is that SeaWorld use Tilikum as a stud animal for artificial insemination. the survival and occurance of male orcas in captivity is so low, that they cannot afford to loose such a valuable animal.
As to the real name, Orca is the real name from the Latin name Orcinus orca.
Its believed that 18th-century Spanish sailors first called the creatures whale killers because of their tenacity to attack large whales. When translated into English, it ma have been mistranslated to "Killer Whale" and the name stuck.
harveydent1 06:40 08 Mar 10
'Killer whale', 'whale killer' - whatever! All that's clear is they kill things! I am never going swimming again!
harveydent1 06:45 08 Mar 10
Perhaps Professor Singer's series should be renamed 'The Ethics of Death'!
FFTMMFA 07:24 08 Mar 10
So either these Killers are dangerous because every now and again they kill people, or they deliberately plan out their attacks. Either way: dangerous psychopaths. So what the heck are these people doing getting dressed up like seals and swimming around with Killer Whales. Hello, they're Killer Whales! For Pete's sake! How can they expect not to be eaten from time to time? Bizarre.
Which brings me to my point about the business of aquatic battlefields: Killer Whales vs. Makos vs. Tiger Sharks vs. Tigers vs. Lions vs. Bears vs. Human Serial Killers in a battle to the death on Pay Per View! We can even use the proceeds to fund private jets for bankers, thereby alleviating the governments burden for such expenditures!
ChrisBS 07:40 08 Mar 10
harveydent1 you are perfectly safe going swimming (well, safe from orcas) as there are no known accounts of orcas killing anyone in their natural environment.
Petting them or jumping in a pool with them in a circus is another matter - that I would not advise.
harveydent1 11:53 08 Mar 10
Chris, thanks for trying to allay my concerns as regards to swimming in general. As for your suggestions of petting or having a swim with them in a circus, as tempting as it sounds, I will indeed try to restrain myself. In regard to other aquatic dangers, I will be most interested to hear your suggestions about where my fears should be more reasonably located. Sharks, for instance, I am not so worried about as I have a sweet trick up my sleeve that a friend of mine acquainted me with. Jelly fish, on the other hand, seem quite nasty - any thoughts on them? Thanks. H
ChrisBS 04:46 09 Mar 10
harveydent1, ah, now you are off my topic of cetaceans :-).
There is whole host of beasties out there that I would be relucant to get wet with, - some jelly fish being high on my list. As to sharks, whats that old saying, 'more people get killed by toasters in baths than by sharks'. What the heck they are doing with toasters in the bath is beynd me, but I guess it just means, 'dont put a shark or a toaster in your bath'. A rubber duck might be the best and safest option...
ChrisBS 05:00 08 Mar 10
Peter thanks for this perspective and making the direct link between cetacean parks such as Sea World and animal circuses. Indeed, I would argue that there is nothing different between the two, as both involve animals doing 'tricks' for our 'entertainment'.
There is a list of reasons why marine parks are not suitable for cetaceans (you can see of them here as www.wdcs.org) but the fundamental fact is that there is a failure to understand that such magnificent creatures are wild animals that need their native environments and kin, not human 'interaction' and concrete tanks as a substitute.
The caricature that Sea World and others present to us hides the misery of stolen creatures that understand their own predicament.
I remember when the orca Corky, long-term cellmate in Sea World, was played the sounds of her mother and family still swimming free; she recognized her family’s calls. There was memory there, and if there is memory, then I truly believe Corky knows what she is missing and can suffer at that loss.
Lets celebrate these creatures in their natural environment, and lets confine these marine circuses to the dustbin of history