the situation with dawn brancheau didn t just happen. it s not a singular event. you have to go back over 20 years to understand this. it was a really exciting thing to do until everybody wanted to do it. what were they telling you you were going to do? capture orcas. they had aircraft, they had spotters, they had speedboats, they had bombs they were throwing in the water. they were lighting their bombs with acetylene torches in their boats and throwing them as fast as they could to herd the whales into coves. but the orcas had been caught before, and they knew what was going on, and they knew their
25 to 35 years. 25 to 35 years. they re documented in the wild living to be about 35, mid-30s. they tend to live longer in this environment because they have all the veterinary care. and of course that s false. we knew by 1980 after half a dozen years of research that they live equivalent to human life spans. and every other potentially embarrassing fact is twisted and turned and denied one way or another. so in the wild they live less. less. like the floppy dorsal fins. 25% of whales have a fin that turns over like that as they get older. dorsal collapse happens in less than 1% of wild killer whales. we know this. all the captive males, 100% have collapsed dorsal fins, and they say that they re a family. that the whales are in their family. they have their pods, but that s just, you know, an artificial assemblage of their collection.
and healthy enough to be released. and the animals like tilikum who are old and sick and have put in 25 years in the industry should be released to an open ocean pen to live out their lives and experience the rhythm of the ocean. this is a multibillion dollar corporation that makes its money through the exploitation of orcas. they re not suitable to have in captivity. the whales are really bored. you deprive them of all this environmental stimulation. i think that in 50 years we ll look back and go, my god, what a barbaric time.
the industry has a vested interest in spinning these so that the animals continue to appear like cuddly teddy bears that are completely safe. you know, that sells a lot of shamu dolls. it sells a lot of tickets at the gate. that s the story line they re going to continue to stick with for as long as they can. recognize that those that say this is a crazed animal that acted out and grabbed dawn maliciously, they want to prove the theorem that captivity makes animals crazy. and that is just false. all whales in captivity have a bad life. they re all emotionally destroyed. they re all psychologically traumatized.
as trainers, we never forget shamu s true potential. we see it each and every day. that s why all our interactions are very carefully thought out. especially our waterwork interaction. whoa! you big dork. especially our waterwork interactions because they re potentially the most dangerous. i ve been expecting it since the second person was killed. i ve been expecting somebody to be killed by tilikum. i m surprised it took as long as it did. first tonight, a six ton killer whale has lived up to his name killing an experienced trainer at seaworld orlando today. a tourist at an earlier show said the animal seemed agitated. trainers complained the whales weren t operating. the whole show, the main show was a disaster that day.