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1:57

Free

2:00

Willy hit theaters in

2:02

the summer of 1993.

2:16

It

2:19

was a movie about a good-hearted but troubled

2:21

orphan named Jesse who befriends a

2:23

frustrated captive orch-a-well named

2:26

Willie. Willie was housed at

2:28

an amusement park where Jesse cleaned graffiti

2:30

to satisfy court-ordered community service.

2:33

Long story short, Jesse successfully

2:35

returns Willie to the ocean after uncovering

2:38

plans by the amusement park's owners to kill

2:40

the whale to collect on a $1 million insurance

2:43

policy, not a dry eye in the

2:45

house. Free Willy

2:47

was a massive box office success.

2:50

Critics called it truly inspiring. Michael

2:53

Jackson wrote an original song for the soundtrack.

2:56

It was a big deal at the time. Two

2:58

sequels hit the big screen before the decade was

3:01

over. All three starred a kid named

3:03

Jason James Richter who played Jesse.

3:06

Willie the whale was eventually replaced with CGI.

3:09

But in the original movie, the role

3:11

was portrayed by a real-life orca

3:13

named Keiko.

3:24

Unfortunately for Keiko, the undeniable

3:27

art of Free Willy imitated his life.

3:29

Keiko had been captured off the coast of Iceland 14

3:32

years before the movie was released. At

3:34

two years old, Keiko was sold to Marine

3:36

Land in Niagara Falls, Ontario, where

3:39

he was bullied relentlessly by the other

3:41

orcas. Mercifully, Keiko

3:43

was sold again in 1985 to Reyno

3:46

Aventura, Latin America's largest

3:49

amusement park at the time, located in Mexico

3:51

City.

3:52

The conditions were inadequate to say

3:54

the least. Keiko, a 10 foot

3:57

long orca, was housed in a 22 foot deep pool

4:00

filled with warm Mexican tap water,

4:03

supplemented with bags of salt now and

4:05

then. The sun was relentless.

4:08

Keiko was literally cooking in his environment.

4:10

He developed lesions all over his skin. He

4:13

also has what's known

4:15

as a papilloma virus, which

4:18

causes lesions similar to warts on

4:20

humans, but that's a

4:22

result of a weak or suppressed immune

4:24

system. Keiko

4:27

spent the next 10 years swimming small

4:29

lethargic circles in his own feces between

4:32

three performances a day. You

4:34

could see the outline of Keiko's skull

4:35

and ribcage through his malnourished skin.

4:38

His dorsal fin was limp and folded, and

4:41

his teeth were worn down the nubs from

4:43

grinding them against the concrete walls that

4:45

housed him. There were no other orcas

4:47

at the park with which he could commiserate.

4:51

Keiko's pathetic condition was a significant

4:54

part of why he was chosen to star in Free Willy.

4:56

The producers initially approached SeaWorld

4:59

about using one of their whales, but the company

5:01

passed because they strongly disagreed

5:03

with the whole part about, you know, freeing

5:05

a whale from captivity. It's kind

5:08

of their entire business model. Luckily

5:10

for Warner Bros., the owners of Reino Aventura

5:13

admittedly had not bothered to read the script

5:16

before agreeing to rent their whale. Even

5:18

better, the deplorable nature of Keiko's

5:21

facility would suit the film perfectly.

5:25

But for everyone involved in the production of

5:27

Free Willy, the images were hard to shake.

5:30

When the shoot wrapped and everyone returned to the US,

5:32

they felt like they'd left Keiko behind to suffer.

5:35

So the producers took action by including a toll-free

5:38

phone number for the International Marine

5:40

Mammal Project during the film's credits

5:42

while posing a question to the audience, How

5:45

far would you go for a friend?

5:59

Children

6:02

all over the world donated every sticky

6:04

penny they could muster. They emptied their

6:06

piggy banks, saved their lunch moneys, and

6:08

organized unlicensed bake sales and lemonade

6:10

stands.

6:12

Millions of dollars were raised in a short

6:14

amount of time. Warner

6:16

Brothers and related studios noticed and

6:18

donated two million dollars of their own instead

6:21

of paying their riders. The Humane

6:23

Society of the United States donated a million,

6:26

and Craig McCall, a billionaire cell

6:28

phone business pioneer, and his wife Wendy

6:30

donated a million of their own with the promise of more.

6:35

In February 1995, the funds

6:37

were pulled together to form a new non-profit,

6:40

the Free Willy Keiko Foundation. Their

6:43

mission was to rehabilitate Keiko,

6:45

and maybe release him back into the

6:47

wild someday. The Free

6:50

Willy Foundation is a

6:51

non-profit organization that is bringing

6:53

together the experts on orcas and dolphins to

6:55

design a new state-of-the-art facility at

6:57

the Oregon Coast Aquarium, and it'll give Keiko

7:00

more room to swim and special attention he

7:02

needs. Expert trainers will teach him

7:04

to survive if he's ever released into the wild. The

7:07

Rescue Center is the first project ever

7:09

designed to do just that.

7:11

$7.3 million dollars

7:13

would be used to build a state-of-the-art tank

7:15

at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport,

7:17

Oregon. It would be four to five

7:20

times the size of Keiko's Mexican tank,

7:22

and contain actual seawater. There

7:24

would be no more performances, no more

7:27

excruciating sunshine,

7:29

and there would be plenty of food. There

7:32

was just one last thing the foundation had to do

7:34

before they could make Keiko's life a bit more bearable.

7:37

They had to convince Rayno Aventura to

7:39

give up their prized whale, and SeaWorld

7:42

wasn't helping.

7:59

and in Mexico, Keiko's owners are

8:02

listening to SeaWorld's arguments. The

8:05

owners of Reno, Aventura could not deny

8:07

that Keiko was in poor health. A

8:09

veterinarian told the park that he wouldn't survive

8:11

in those conditions much longer. Reno

8:14

had tried to sell Keiko to SeaWorld before the movie

8:16

came out, but SeaWorld wasn't

8:18

interested because of his warts.

8:21

But now that there was talk of freeing Keiko,

8:23

suddenly SeaWorld was very concerned about

8:25

his well-being.

8:27

Brad Andrews, SeaWorld's chief zoological

8:29

officer, told Florida Today,

8:32

I don't think it's fair and humane to the animal to

8:34

try this operation just to make a few people

8:36

happy.

8:38

Reno Aventura wasn't interested in SeaWorld's

8:40

offer to install cooling equipment, and

8:43

the only other option besides keeping Keiko was

8:45

to sell him to Michael Jackson, who offered

8:47

to house the orca at Neverland Ranch, a

8:50

fate much worse than death. The

8:52

choice was obvious. Reno Aventura

8:55

donated Keiko to the Free Willy

8:57

Keiko Foundation. We feel

8:59

very sad, but at the same time we feel

9:01

happy because we

9:04

are convinced that we are offering

9:06

Keiko an

9:09

opportunity, an opportunity

9:12

to have a different

9:13

life, a nice life.

9:16

After one final performance in Mexico

9:18

City, Keiko was flown overnight to

9:20

Oregon courtesy of UPS on January

9:22

7th, 1996. Two

9:25

of Keiko's Mexican trainers traveled with him

9:27

since he only responded to commands in Spanish,

9:30

and as many as 100,000 people lined the expressway

9:33

to the airport to see him off. After

9:36

a year in his new tank, Keiko gained 2,000

9:38

pounds. His warts had

9:40

disappeared. He had more energy, he

9:42

was more playful,

9:43

and he could now hold his breath for up to 20 minutes. When

9:46

he first arrived in Oregon, Keiko, the killer

9:49

whale, could only hold his breath for 2

9:51

minutes.

9:59

and become master of this environment within

10:02

this environment here, the pool that he lives in." As

10:05

Keiko's condition improved, the Free

10:07

Willy Keiko Foundation became more encouraged

10:10

that he could be successfully reintroduced

10:12

to the Icelandic waters from which he came. Many

10:15

thought that that was a delusional idea,

10:18

including Steiner Bastison, a pro-wailing

10:20

Norwegian politician who called the efforts,

10:23

quote, a lunatic waste of money.

10:26

There

10:26

are more than enough killer whales around, he

10:28

said, adding, the only good killer

10:30

whale is a dead one.

10:32

Bastison suggested making 60,000 meatballs

10:35

out of Keiko and sending them to starving

10:38

children in Africa. Other

10:41

opponents had more, reasoned takes.

10:43

John Gunderson, the Icelandic Aquarium

10:46

owner who first captured Keiko, was

10:48

convinced returning to the wild a whale who

10:50

had been in captivity for 18 years would

10:52

never work. He's too different from them,

10:55

Gunderson said, and he will always rely

10:57

on humans. The conservation people

10:59

won't listen, they don't want reality,

11:02

they want the romantic story. The

11:06

Oregon Coast Aquarium, where Keiko

11:08

was currently housed, was also

11:10

against releasing him. The Free

11:12

Willy Keiko Foundation discounted their opinion

11:14

because there existed a conflict of interest.

11:17

Keiko's presence had doubled the aquarium's

11:20

annual attendance, pumping $75 million into

11:23

the local economy. Of course,

11:25

they wanted them to stay. And

11:27

our missions, as we are

11:30

learning painfully, are different

11:32

than that of the aquarium. The

11:34

Free Willy Keiko Foundation's mission

11:37

is rescue, rehabilitation, and

11:39

release.

11:40

That's our business.

11:44

The aquarium is in the display

11:46

business. Legally,

11:48

Keiko was in the custody of the Free Willy

11:51

Keiko Foundation when they felt that he had

11:53

shown enough promise of returning to the wild

11:55

to take the next step. So on September 9,

11:57

1998, after 32 years of

11:59

months at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Keiko,

12:03

three feet longer and 3,800 pounds heavier

12:06

than the first time he was moved,

12:07

was flown to the southern coast of Iceland

12:10

where he was housed in a pen in Klettsviks

12:12

Bay. The foundation's trainers

12:14

hope to teach him how to fend for himself. He

12:16

spent the last you know 20 years being

12:19

fed by humans. He needs to learn how to

12:21

to actually be able to handle it, find

12:24

fish, catch fish and eat fish on

12:26

his own. So what we're doing right now is we're

12:29

bridging that gap

12:32

between humans feeding him all the time

12:34

and Keiko feeding himself completely.

12:37

Keiko was also encouraged to explore.

12:40

His caretakers would lure him into the open ocean

12:43

on supervised walks where Keiko would

12:45

follow the boat.

12:46

Every now and then a pod of wild orcas would

12:48

swim by. Keiko would watch from afar

12:51

and lightly interact with them but always

12:53

returned to the humans. And

12:55

just when it appeared hope was lost, Keiko

12:57

is swimming with wild orcas and might well

13:00

be on his way to independence. For a week now

13:02

Keiko has been out of his pen in Iceland getting

13:04

his own food and interacting with wild

13:06

killer whales. Keiko's human handlers are keeping

13:08

an eye on him by helicopter. They say

13:10

it is still too soon to tell if Keiko is

13:12

going to swim away with the migrating orcas who

13:15

will leave in two to three weeks or stay with

13:17

his human handlers. If Keiko doesn't

13:19

go, attempts to make him part of an orca pod

13:21

may be abandoned.

13:25

Just as Keiko showed promise, the project's

13:27

funding dried up. Craig McCaw, the

13:30

billionaire whose foundation contributed millions

13:32

of dollars a year to freeing Willie,

13:34

lost eight billion dollars in the dot-com

13:36

crash of 2000. He had to cut some

13:38

costs. Still

13:40

Keiko made progress even on the new

13:42

shoestring budget.

13:44

He was going on longer and longer voyages and

13:46

staying the night with

13:47

his friends. But disappointingly

13:49

he was still returning to his human every

13:51

time until

13:52

July 2002. Finally

13:56

Keiko was free.

13:58

Keiko had followed some wild

13:59

orcas into the open ocean. His

14:02

former caretakers tracked him for six weeks

14:04

and 870 miles until he came to a stop in

14:07

Skalvik fjord in Norway. When

14:10

they arrived to assess the situation,

14:12

the researchers found Keiko giving rides

14:15

to the Norwegian children.

14:19

The good news is, judging by his healthy girth,

14:21

Keiko hadn't missed a meal on his journey. The

14:24

bad news is that he was lonely. Keiko

14:26

hadn't been welcomed into a pod and

14:28

returned to the only thing he had ever known, people.

14:33

Keiko couldn't shake his lifelong connection to

14:35

people,

14:36

and at this point, he probably never

14:38

would. The foundation

14:40

accepted this reality. They continued

14:43

taking him on walks, and they continued

14:45

to feed him. Keiko would wander

14:47

off, and the caretakers would track him until he

14:49

returned, until one day he

14:51

didn't. He

14:53

captured our hearts and minds during his time

14:56

spent in Oregon and on the big screen,

14:58

but tonight, Keiko the killer whale has

15:01

died at the age of 27. On

15:03

December 12, 2003, Keiko's

15:06

27-year-old, six-ton

15:08

carcass was found floating in Tactus

15:10

Bay. The probable cause of death

15:12

was pneumonia.

15:14

His caretakers had given him antibiotics the

15:16

day before, when

15:17

they noticed he had stopped eating.

15:20

Keiko was laid to rest in a private ceremony

15:22

in a nearby Norwegian pasture, which

15:25

is usually not permitted. Apparently,

15:27

all the pollution in the ocean absorbed by

15:29

the whale's bodies poses an environmental

15:32

hazard when buried. Welcome to

15:34

Earth.

15:34

Go figure.

15:38

Was it a success? Returning

15:41

Keiko to the wild? It

15:43

depends on who you ask.

15:45

The positive among us point out that Keiko was

15:47

able to spend the five final years of his life

15:49

swimming free in a natural environment

15:51

that was enough for them.

15:53

Was it worth the effort? Was it cost

15:56

effective? Are those even the right questions

15:58

to ask? How about was it moral?

16:01

Was it that what separates us from them? It

16:05

was obvious that Keiko was far from the ideal

16:07

candidate for testing if a captive

16:09

killer whale could successfully return

16:11

to the wild. It spent the majority of

16:13

his life in captivity, in isolation.

16:16

His chances of reintegrating into Orca

16:18

society and not missing a beat were always

16:21

slim. That was always the most optimistic

16:23

goal. Besides it had

16:25

already been proven possible on a smaller

16:28

scale. A year before Keiko's death,

16:30

the US and Canadian governments reunited

16:33

a young Orca named Springer with her pod

16:35

after she got lost when her mother died. Soon

16:38

after, there was another opportunity

16:40

to prove reintroduction possible when

16:43

6-year-old Luna was found separated

16:45

from his mother near Vancouver Island. However,

16:48

those plans were thwarted by a local

16:50

group of Native Americans who insisted that

16:52

Luna was the reincarnated spirit

16:55

of their dead tribal chief and they

16:57

wanted him left alone.

16:59

True story. So, Luna

17:01

lived in the bay for five years, befriending

17:03

people and playfully chasing vessels until

17:06

he was sucked into

17:07

the propellers of a tugboat and diced

17:09

into unrecoverable pieces. See,

17:13

the

17:13

ocean is a dark and scary place,

17:15

reminds SeaWorld, the publicly traded

17:18

marine amusement park corporation that viewed

17:20

Keiko's return to the wild as an abject

17:22

failure.

17:24

Keiko never integrated with other Orcas.

17:26

He was too attached to humans. He

17:29

was being fed until the day he died. We

17:31

hate to say we told you so, SeaWorld

17:34

expressed indirectly, as if

17:36

it was sentient enough to learn lessons

17:38

of its own. The consequences

17:40

of keeping one of Earth's most intelligent

17:43

animals in captivity

17:44

on this episode of Swindled.

17:54

...paid a play, leaves a taxpayer dollars,

17:56

never wasted... A

18:00

billion dollars. W'ed up its books and

18:02

records to hide the making of the... ...by falsifying its

18:04

books and records model for the collapse

18:06

of the entire system. ...in the troll of some kind

18:08

of swing-off. Support

18:17

for Swindled comes from Blind Plea, a

18:19

new podcast from Limonata Media. In 2017,

18:23

Devon Gray shot and killed her abusive partner

18:26

in rural Shelby County, Alabama. She

18:29

claimed self-defense and filed a Stand

18:31

Your Ground claim. Instead of freedom,

18:34

she was handed a blind plea, an

18:36

option to take an unknown sentence in exchange

18:39

for pleading guilty. As a black

18:41

woman who shot and killed a white man in

18:43

Alabama, she did the only thing she

18:45

could. She took the plea. New

18:48

from Limonata Media, award-winning

18:51

journalist Liz Flock hosts

18:53

a new true crime podcast, Blind

18:55

Plea. She'll look at the generational

18:57

trauma,

18:58

broken justice system, and coercive

19:01

control that led to Devon's fate. Blind

19:03

Plea is out now, wherever you

19:06

get your podcasts.

19:12

And though the killer

19:14

whale flips around like a tame and harmless

19:16

porpoise, in fact, he's the most ferocious

19:19

predator that hunts the Seven Seas.

19:20

And

19:27

he can eat a man any time he likes. Swim with me. You're

19:30

a two-year-old orca whale searching for food

19:33

with your

19:33

pod. You're near the Icelandic coast.

19:36

The year is 1983. All

19:39

of a sudden, you come across the mother lode.

19:42

Thousands of herrings appear right in front of your rostrum.

19:45

Of course, you feel the heat of the sun.

19:48

You feel the heat of the sun. You

19:50

feel the heat of the sun. The two

19:52

of your pairings appear right in front of your rostrum.

19:54

Of course, you feast. You

19:58

almost didn't notice that unfamiliar noise at the end.

19:59

first but now it's getting louder.

20:02

Next you're swallowed by a rapidly approaching

20:04

shadow.

20:05

Before you can heed your mother's warning you

20:08

find yourself entangled in the net with a couple

20:10

of your cousins.

20:11

You try to fight your way out for a while but soon

20:14

give up when you realize there's no use.

20:17

Suddenly you're ripped out of your environment and

20:20

placed into a small compartment on a human

20:22

piloted boat. That noise

20:24

starts again. It's deafening

20:27

but unable to drown out

20:29

your mother's screams.

20:31

Humans haven't yet cracked the code of orca

20:34

vocalization but they know despair when

20:36

they hear it and that's the only way

20:38

to describe the sounds coming from your

20:40

anguished family. Those

20:43

calls grow fainter hours later when your

20:45

pod becomes too tired to continue the chase.

20:47

Any sign of your family has disappeared completely

20:51

and it's just you and the humans who

20:53

are now hoisting your 13 foot 2000 pound

20:56

body with a sling to put on a truck

20:58

to be delivered to a marine zoo in Reykjavik

21:01

and that's where you will be kept in a small

21:03

tank in their total isolation for

21:05

an entire calendar year until

21:08

you are sold like a product to Sealand

21:10

of Victoria, British Columbia.

21:15

Sealand has been a part of Victoria for

21:17

over 20 years. We specialize

21:20

in the care and display of killer whales.

21:22

In 1984 Sealand

21:23

was looking to replace its orcas who had

21:25

recently died.

21:28

Congratulations

21:34

Tilikum. That's your new name. You've

21:37

been chosen. We will teach you tricks.

21:40

We will feed you fish and you

21:42

will perform eight times a day seven

21:44

days a week.

21:45

Have fun.

21:48

The performances were actually a relief compared

21:50

to the lonely nights. You

21:52

Tilikum shared a living space with two

21:55

older more dominant female orcas.

21:58

They grew up in different pods from different

21:59

regions so none of you could

22:02

communicate. Not that it was necessary.

22:05

The constant raking of your skin with their

22:07

teeth and chewing on your tail until it looked like

22:09

hamburger meat let you know exactly

22:12

where the other orcas stood. And

22:15

there was no way out. When the shows

22:17

were over all three of you were stuffed

22:19

into a container only 26 feet wide 14

22:22

hours at a time, pitch darkness.

22:25

The conflict was unavoidable. Sometimes

22:28

you, Tilikum, would refuse to go inside

22:30

the container at the end of a long day. You

22:33

could sense when the others were in a terrible

22:35

mood. And you lived like

22:37

this for years.

22:38

This gray, dull existence

22:40

where nothing new ever happens. Until

22:43

it does. February

22:46

20th 1991. The day

22:48

shows had just ended. Guests were

22:50

filing out. The staff was cleaning

22:52

up when you, Tilikum, hear a splash.

22:56

One of the new part-time trainers had fallen into

22:58

the pool. Her name was Kelty Byrne.

23:01

She was 20 years old. She was a

23:03

marine biology student and a competitive

23:05

swimmer. Kelty screamed

23:08

when you bit down on her foot.

23:10

The screaming stopped when you dragged her underwater.

23:13

The older female whales in the pool squealed

23:15

with the light when they saw your new toy. For

23:18

which you had no plans of letting go.

23:22

Witnesses say Kelty Byrne surfaced on occasion

23:24

with terror in her eyes. Screams

23:26

of, I don't want to die, echoed

23:28

in the nearly empty arena. There

23:31

was nothing anyone could do. The

23:33

other trainers threw food in the water to

23:35

distract you, Tilikum, but it didn't

23:37

work. They threw a life preserver,

23:39

but the female whales prevented it from reaching

23:42

your new possession. Ten minutes

23:44

later, which felt like an eternity,

23:47

you finally let her go. They

23:49

bounced her around the

23:51

pool a whole bunch of times and she was screaming for

23:53

help and they tried to they

23:56

tried to grab her with sticks

23:58

but they couldn't get her.

23:59

And finally she

24:05

didn't come up anymore. Kelty

24:08

Burns lifeless body was retrieved from the pool.

24:10

She had been stripped entirely naked, saved

24:13

one boot. There were bite marks all

24:15

over her body. Her death was ruled an

24:17

accident. Why did

24:19

you do that, Tillicum? Are

24:22

you in pain? Are you bored? Are

24:24

you lonely? Steve

24:26

Huxter, the head animal trainer at Sea

24:28

Land, had a theory. They'd

24:30

never had a plaything in the pool that was so interactive,

24:33

he said. They

24:34

just got incredibly excited and

24:36

stimulated.

24:38

Animal activists had a different

24:40

interpretation.

24:41

But animal rights activists were quick to say

24:43

the whales' behavior was a result of

24:46

their captivity. These are wild

24:48

animals. They can be dangerous, even though they are

24:51

generally friendly towards people, living

24:54

the way they do in a kind of compact

24:56

environment. They

24:59

go crazy.

25:01

Kelty Burns' death illuminated the

25:03

physical and mental abuse orcas like Tillicum

25:06

endured at amusement parks like Sea Land

25:08

of the Victoria,

25:09

who never recovered from the tragedy.

25:12

Less than a year later, the park announced it was

25:14

closing its doors for good.

25:16

Activists encouraged them to release their whales

25:18

into the wild.

25:20

Sea Land said absolutely not,

25:22

because the orcas trusted humans implicitly.

25:25

The people here at Sea Land say

25:28

releasing these whales into the wild

25:30

is simply not an option. That, they say,

25:32

would be a death

25:33

sentence. So

25:37

this is where Sea Land's three whales are

25:39

headed, sold to Sea World Aquariums

25:41

around the United States. Sea

25:43

World scientists say they'll be better off

25:45

here than in the wild.

25:50

Sea Land is a wonderful

25:52

place to be.

26:08

In the early 90s, SeaWorld's marine

26:11

amusement park empire was growing. The

26:13

company had attractions in Florida, Ohio,

26:16

California, and a new one in Texas, all

26:18

featuring thrill rides and animal encounters

26:20

that competing parks could not offer, specifically

26:23

Killer Wells. Killer Wells had

26:25

been the cornerstone of SeaWorld since its founding

26:28

in 1964. In the early

26:30

days, SeaWorld would buy orcas captured in

26:32

the wild, give them the brand name

26:34

Shamu, and teach them to bow, roll

26:37

over, wave a fin, and blow a raspberry.

26:50

SeaWorld was in need of a mature

26:52

male orca after the sudden death of a can

26:54

duke a year earlier. Of the company's 13

26:57

remaining wells, 12 of them were female,

27:00

so SeaWorld purchased Tilikum from Sealand

27:03

for a reported $1 million and

27:05

moved him to the company's flagship park in Orlando.

27:08

Don't worry Tilikum, you will primarily

27:11

be used for breeding. That

27:13

was SeaWorld's idea of a more modern,

27:15

ethical approach. You're the

27:17

largest orca in captivity after all.

27:20

A big show-stopping splash is enough from

27:22

you.

27:23

Besides, SeaWorld was well aware of your

27:25

history, but tragically,

27:28

the same couldn't be said for everyone. On

27:33

Tuesday, July 6,

27:35

1999, SeaWorld staff arrived in the morning to

27:37

find a nude male body draped over

27:40

Tilikum's back.

27:41

The skin was discolored and bruised. Rigor

27:44

Mortis had set in.

27:46

It took a while for emergency responders to retrieve

27:49

the corpse from the whale, and when they finally did,

27:51

Tilikum was reportedly, quote, pissed.

27:54

It seemed as if Tilikum had enjoyed entertaining

27:56

himself with the human body, as evidenced

27:59

by the little pieces of human flesh collected

28:01

from the bottom of the pool.

28:03

Tilikum had also nibbled open the victim's scrotum,

28:06

removed his left testicle, and then spit

28:08

it out, reportedly.

28:10

We can't know for sure because there was no

28:12

security footage of the incident. Initially,

28:15

the Orange County Sheriff's Office was stumped. While

28:18

we probably never know the exact cause of death,

28:20

the spokesperson said, he

28:22

may have been a victim of what a whale would call,

28:24

horseplay, just playing around.

28:29

The horseplay victim was identified

28:31

as 27-year-old Daniel Dukes.

28:34

They found his ID in a neat pile of clothes

28:36

next to the pool, along with a marijuana-filled

28:39

cigarette.

28:41

Those that knew him say Daniel was a free spirit,

28:43

the drifter type. He lived at a hard

28:46

Krishna temple in Miami for a while. He

28:48

was big on nature and environmentalism.

28:52

SeaWorld staff remembered seeing Daniel Dukes

28:54

the day before. He looked

28:57

dirty and had a foul odor about him.

29:00

He was muttering to himself all crazy-lacking,

29:03

wondering around the front gate plaza,

29:05

glaring suspiciously at young

29:07

girls. Daniel

29:10

must have hidden somewhere until the park closed.

29:12

Then he hopped a 3-foot plexiglass barrier

29:15

and swam with Tilikum in the dine with a shampoo

29:17

pool. The cold water must have

29:19

given Daniel hypothermia, and then he

29:21

drowned accidentally, SeaWorld suggested,

29:24

despite his severely mutilated

29:26

body.

29:28

The amusement park was quick to point out Dukes'

29:31

numerous arrests. It was all minor stuff,

29:33

marijuana possession, petty theft, trespassing.

29:37

In fact, Daniel Dukes spent some time in jail just

29:39

days before his death for stealing a

29:41

three musketeers candy bar from a convenience

29:43

store, like some kind of out-of-control

29:46

career criminal. SeaWorld

29:48

made an effort to paint the victim as a mentally ill,

29:51

drug-abusing vagrant,

29:53

and as typical of those cases, the

29:55

media coverage was sparse. Mr.

29:57

Dukes had been trespassing. SeaWorld's

29:59

exec Vice President told the New York Times,

30:02

not only was that incredibly bad judgment to

30:04

try to take a dip with a killer whale, but remember,

30:07

this water is 50 degrees ice

30:09

cold water. In other words,

30:12

it was a freak accident and Daniel

30:15

Dukes only had himself to blame. SeaWorld

30:17

returned to business as usual in short order

30:20

including Tillichem, who would claim his

30:22

third victim about 10 years later.

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Swindled.

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Swindled. The trainers who work with

31:45

the killer whales are in amazing physical

31:47

shape and some of them have a lot of experience

31:50

competing in marathons and triathlons.

31:52

And I want to introduce you to one of those very special trainers

31:54

this morning. This is Don Brancho. Don

31:56

is the senior trainer here at Shamu

31:58

Stadium. honor Don

32:01

and I mean this so sincerely of watching you perform

32:03

yesterday, you're amazing. Thank

32:05

you. You really are. You're not only a wonderful showman,

32:08

but you are so physically fit. It's a tough

32:10

job, isn't it?

32:11

Don Brancho had known she wanted

32:14

to be a Sea World trainer since she was

32:16

nine years old. A family vacation

32:18

to the Orlando park ignited the passion.

32:21

Don started working for the company in 1994 after

32:24

graduating with degrees in animal behavior

32:26

and psychology from the University

32:28

of South Carolina. Don

32:30

Brancho was a friend to every living

32:33

creature. Gosh,

32:34

do I love coming out here every day and

32:37

having the audience just love what we're doing with

32:39

the animals. How do I make this animal

32:41

as beautiful as they are and have

32:43

people walk away loving this animal and they're

32:45

touched and they're moved and I feel like I made a

32:47

difference. Fifteen

32:50

years later, Don Brancho had become

32:52

the literal poster girl of Sea World. She

32:54

was featured on billboards throughout Orlando,

32:57

including the city's welcome sign at the airport.

33:00

At 40 years old, Don was the company's most experienced

33:03

trainer. She had worked with every animal

33:05

at the park, including the now 23 foot

33:07

long 12,500 pound Tilikum, who Don was scheduled to interact

33:12

with on February 24th, 2010.

33:18

The Dine

33:19

with Shamu show was a short

33:21

session that featured a trainer leading a well

33:23

through a series of tricks while park guests

33:25

enjoyed lunch in a restaurant setting. By

33:28

all accounts, the show itself progressed swimmingly.

33:31

Tilikum obeyed Don's every command and

33:33

received his rewards, frozen fish

33:35

from a bucket and soon a customary

33:38

post show rubbed down. The

33:40

guests cleared out around 1 30 p.m. after

33:42

the show's completion. Don Brancho

33:45

called Tilikum over to the slide out, a

33:47

shallow platform in the pool where she was positioned

33:49

to reach him better. Don laid down

33:51

on the slide out and started rubbing Tilikum.

33:54

At approximately 1 38 p.m. he

33:57

pulled her into the water.

33:59

It was maybe like

34:02

a current of water, a ripple of water, blow

34:04

her hair into his mouth. All

34:07

of a sudden I saw her pulling on her

34:09

hair and trying to pull out.

34:11

There is conflicting witness testimony.

34:14

Some saw Tilikum deliberately pull the

34:16

trainer into the pool by her left arm and shoulder.

34:19

Others saw the whale become infatuated with Don's

34:21

long ponytail, which drifted in front of

34:23

his mouth.

34:24

Don was growing out of her hair to donate

34:26

to cancer patients.

34:29

Don branched in his mouth,

34:30

Tilikum maneuvered around the pool erratically.

34:34

Witnesses say Don broke free in a brief moment of

34:36

fortune and swam frantically for the near

34:38

surface.

34:39

And here comes the whale.

34:41

And here comes the whale. And at

34:43

first it looked like he was going to go underneath her

34:45

and give her a foot lift. You know, like you see them do

34:48

during the Believe Show? And then he

34:50

lifted his snow up and impacted

34:52

her squarely in the chest. When

34:55

she went, I mean, you can't go

34:57

flying through the water, but it was substantial.

35:00

Tilikum rammed his rostrum

35:02

directly into Don Brancho's chest

35:05

and then fetched her with his jaws.

35:07

He thrashed around so violently that Don's

35:09

shoes flew off her feet. Say the

35:12

remaining guests, some of which were

35:14

watching the attack unfold from SeaWorld's underwater

35:17

observation area. Orange

35:19

County, fire rescue.

35:20

6,600, Sea

35:23

Harbor Drive. SeaWorld,

35:26

my fortune. And

35:29

where is the patient located inside there? They are

35:31

at Shamu Stadium. She actually

35:34

has a trainer in the

35:35

water with one of our whales. The

35:37

whale that they're not supposed to be in the water with. So

35:40

we don't know what's going on. We were

35:42

just told to call and have people here on standby when

35:44

they get the person out. Okay, and do

35:46

you know if, so you don't know if the person

35:49

was injured or if they're having a medical problem? No

35:51

idea. Okay, very well said. I don't even

35:53

think they're out of the water yet. They're still in there with the

35:55

whale, so. Okay,

35:58

but someone is unseen in danger.

35:59

They are getting them out of the

36:01

water now. There are people working on it, yes.

36:03

There's about two or three dozen people over

36:05

there right now.

36:07

Tillicum grew more agitated as trainers

36:10

tried to distract him with food and nets. They

36:13

coaxed him into three different pools, but he

36:15

wouldn't let go of Don, who was utterly

36:17

motionless by this point. Finally,

36:20

after 45 minutes, the SeaWorld

36:22

staff were able to corner Tillicum in the medical

36:24

pool and raise the false bottom. Witnesses

36:27

say the rescue workers had to pry open the whale's

36:29

mouth twice, one to release Don

36:31

Brancho from the grips of his teeth, and

36:34

a second time to retrieve her detached

36:36

left arm. This is witness testimony

36:38

from Laura Sorevic, a SeaWorld

36:41

employee and Don Brancho's best friend.

36:43

Tillicum was in

36:45

there and he knows me. I worked with this whale since

36:48

he's been here. Right. So

36:52

I decided at that point they

36:54

were lifting and as the floor

36:57

lifted, I stepped into

37:00

onto the platform. And

37:02

I looked at him, he looked at me right in

37:04

the eye and he had her arm. He

37:06

had her arm and he was shaking

37:09

back and forth and I just said, it's all right baby,

37:12

settle down. And I went

37:14

and I got her and I just cradled

37:17

her torso and I said,

37:19

it's all right, let go, let go.

37:25

Don Brancho had no pulse, the

37:27

defibrillator had no effect. Don's

37:29

autopsy later revealed that she had jaw, rib,

37:32

sternum, and vertebrae fractures. Additionally,

37:35

her spinal cord was severed and her

37:37

entire scalp had been, forcibly

37:39

torn from the head.

37:41

Was retrieved from the bottom of the pool later, ponytail

37:44

still attached.

37:47

The

37:47

official cause of death would be blunt force trauma

37:49

and drowning.

37:50

First responders covered Don Brancho's body

37:53

with a black cloth to protect her dignity

37:55

from the local news station's eyes in the sky

37:58

which were circling overhead.

37:59

Occasionally, Tilikum would swim over to

38:02

the edge

38:02

of the pool and take a peek for himself.

38:05

A

38:05

tragedy at SeaWorld that happened without

38:07

warning. A killer whale grabbed a trainer

38:10

who'd always dreamed of working with orcas and

38:12

pulled her underwater.

38:13

The star of the show, the setter of all things

38:16

SeaWorld today, offered a grisly reminder

38:18

why the name killer is right in its title.

38:20

SeaWorld Orlando's biggest killer whale carried

38:22

out the park's biggest tragedy today, drowning

38:24

a trainer as horrified spectators looked

38:27

on.

38:27

So officially the Orange County Sheriff's Office says

38:29

this 40-year-old female employee of SeaWorld,

38:32

a trainer with more than 20 years experience, slipped

38:34

and fell into a behind the scenes pool behind

38:37

the Shamu Stadium show. We're told

38:39

that the whale in that pool apparently grabbed

38:41

her and pulled her underwater. It is believed

38:44

that she drowned. But we know this. Children

38:46

saw this, waiting for a SeaWorld water show,

38:48

waiting to see the majesty of the world's largest

38:51

whale in captivity, a 13,000 pound

38:52

killer whale. Instead

38:56

they got a first hand look at the violent

38:59

and deadly world of nature in its

39:01

rawest form. Witnesses say Tilikum

39:03

jumped out of the water, grabbed

39:05

a female trainer around the waist and started thrashing

39:08

her so hard that at one point her shoe

39:10

flew off. A SeaWorld spokesman says

39:13

the female trainer slipped and fell into the water

39:15

and then was attacked by the whale. Either

39:17

way, the audience was quickly rushed out of the

39:20

park. The park immediately closed. By

39:22

the time paramedics reached the trainer, she

39:24

was dead.

39:25

I don't know. What apparently happened

39:27

is we had a female trainer back

39:29

in the whale holding area. She apparently slipped

39:32

or fell into the tank and was fatally

39:34

injured by one of the whales.

39:37

Dan

39:37

Brown, the vice president and

39:40

general manager of SeaWorld Orlando,

39:42

delivered a statement that

39:43

evening. It's

39:46

with great sadness that I report that one of our most

39:48

experienced animal trainers drowned in

39:51

an incident with one of our killer whales this afternoon.

39:54

We have initiated an investigation to determine

39:56

to the extent possible what occurred. details

40:00

to share at this point,

40:01

but we will make our findings known in due course.

40:04

And let's emphasize this is an extraordinarily difficult

40:06

time for the Sea Will Parks and our team members. Nothing

40:09

is more important than the safety of our employees,

40:12

guests, and in the animals entrusted to

40:14

our care. We have never in the history

40:17

of our parks experienced an incident like this, and

40:19

all of our standard operating procedures will come under

40:21

review as part of this

40:23

investigation. We extend

40:26

our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of

40:29

the trainer and we will do everything possible to

40:31

assist them in this difficult time.

40:34

The next day, February 26, 2010, SeaWorld CEO

40:36

Jim Acheson announced that trainers

40:40

would temporarily no longer join orcas in

40:42

the water until they could reassess

40:45

their processes and procedures. As

40:48

you know, all direct interactions with these animals

40:50

was suspended immediately after the incident

40:52

on Wednesday

40:54

in all three SeaWorld parks. This includes

40:56

all shell and most husbandry interactions

40:58

and our dining programs. We will

41:00

resume performances of our killer whale show believe

41:03

tomorrow at SeaWorld Parks in Orlando,

41:05

San Diego, and San Antonio. But

41:07

our trainers will not enter the water. Okay,

41:10

well, what about telecom? Let

41:13

me be very clear about how

41:15

we care for telecom. Telecom

41:17

is an important part of our overall team here. Our

41:19

team at this facility,

41:21

one of the largest marine life facilities

41:23

in the world is comprised

41:25

of the whales and the trainers. Telecom

41:27

interacts with both. Telecom is not separated

41:30

in any fashion. He is part

41:32

of the whole social network of this facility, including

41:34

the other

41:35

killer whales and the trainers. He is never

41:37

separated. After

41:39

the branch attack, Telecom became

41:42

more isolated than ever.

41:43

His caretakers were instructed to brush his teeth

41:46

with a two foot pole.

41:47

Instead of massaging the well with their hands, they

41:50

sprayed him with a high powered water hose

41:52

from afar. Despite

41:54

pleas from the American Family Association,

41:57

a religious conservative group that issued.

42:00

decree for Tilikum to be stoned to death

42:02

in accordance with biblical law, SeaWorld

42:04

made it very clear that the whale would not be punished

42:07

and that they would not get rid of him. The

42:09

company didn't outright say it, but Tilikum

42:12

was too valuable to their operation.

42:15

He had already fathered 13 calves and

42:17

would have two more on the way just a few months

42:19

after the

42:19

incident. Tilikum would not,

42:22

however, be allowed to participate in

42:24

the performances which resumed three days

42:26

later. Fans

42:27

lined up two hours early to see

42:29

the first show, which was dedicated to

42:32

the beloved Dawn Branch show. The

42:34

trainers were given a standing ovation.

42:58

Behind the scenes,

42:59

the branch show attack had triggered an investigation

43:02

into SeaWorld by the Federal Occupational

43:04

Safety and Health Administration. Any

43:06

workplace where an employee is scalped alive,

43:09

crushed and drowned can usually expect

43:11

a visit. OSHA discovered that SeaWorld

43:13

had a long history of incidents involving

43:16

its killer whales,

43:17

many of which were undocumented. Even

43:20

the company's first orca, Shamu,

43:22

whose mother was shot and killed with a harpoon

43:24

right in front of her when captured, was involved

43:27

in a near tragic incident. In 1971,

43:29

a SeaWorld secretary named

43:32

Annette Ekas was chosen to ride on the

43:34

back of Shamu for a publicity event. Shamu's

43:37

jaws had to be pried apart to allow the

43:39

bloody and battered woman to reach safety. 1987

43:41

was the worst though. Fourteen

43:45

SeaWorld trainers at SeaWorld San Diego

43:47

were injured on the job in four months. One

43:50

of them was 26-year-old John Sillick.

43:52

As part of a show, John was riding the back of Corky

43:55

when another whale named Orky leaped

43:57

out of the water and landed on John.

43:59

switching him between the six-ton animals in front

44:02

of a horrified capacity crowd. John

44:05

Sillick survived with broken ribs, a

44:07

broken pelvis that shattered femur, and 12 broken

44:10

vertebrae. It was only his second

44:12

year on the job. The SeaWorld blamed the

44:14

newbie trainer for making an error. It

44:16

was an accident, the company claimed, not

44:19

an act of aggression. That

44:21

same year, a 6,000-pound orca named

44:23

Candu landed on top of a trainer

44:25

named Joanne Weber, fracturing

44:27

her neck while pushing her to the bottom of a 40-foot-deep

44:29

pool. Joanne's

44:32

injuries were made worse when SeaWorld demanded

44:34

she remove her wetsuit before making her walk

44:36

to the ambulance. They didn't want the paramedics

44:39

to damage the company's property. Several

44:42

people, including John Sillick and Joanne Weber,

44:45

sued SeaWorld that year for negligence

44:47

and fraud for making them work with, quote,

44:49

ferocious and dangerous animals. SeaWorld

44:52

settled all of those lawsuits out of court

44:55

with a gag order. As a result,

44:57

none of the trainers can talk about it publicly.

45:01

Side note, here's what happened to Candu, the

45:04

well that landed on Joanne. Two

45:06

years later, Candu interrupted a show where her

45:08

born-in-captivity daughter, Orchid, performed

45:11

with Corky, a mature female. Candu

45:14

apparently did not appreciate how close Corky

45:16

was becoming with Orchid, so she attacked

45:19

Corky, ramming her at full speed

45:21

with an open mouth. The strike

45:23

resulted in Candu breaking her own jaw,

45:26

which severed a major artery in her nasal

45:28

passage, causing a 10-foot geyser

45:30

of blood to spray from Candu's blowhole

45:32

as she bled to death over the next 45 minutes

45:35

in front of horrified spectators. It's

45:38

common behavior, the SeaWorld veterinary

45:40

until the LA Times. The altercation

45:42

was initiated by Candu. She was

45:44

asserting her dominance.

45:47

Orcas are very protective of their

45:49

offspring.

45:50

It's been suggested that this maternal bond

45:53

is what led to the 2006 attack on SeaWorld San

45:56

Diego trainer, Ken Peters.

45:59

2006 is chilling.

46:02

Ken Peters, an experienced trainer, is

46:04

swimming with a 5,000 pound female named

46:07

Kasatka, an animal he's worked with

46:09

for years. With no apparent

46:11

warning, the killer whale grabs his feet

46:14

and pulls him underwater for close to

46:16

a minute. Then it brings him to the

46:18

surface where the trainer pets the whale, tries

46:21

to calm it, only to be yanked

46:23

down again.

46:25

During the performance, Kasatka's calf

46:27

reportedly called for its mother from a nearby

46:29

pool. Being helpless to respond,

46:32

Kasatka lashed out at those who were keeping

46:34

them separated.

46:35

Ken Peters survived with a broken foot.

46:38

Kasatka performed the next day. There

46:41

are times like this when they are killer whales and

46:43

she did choose to

46:46

demonstrate her feelings in a way that obviously was unfortunate.

46:49

And we are unfortunate that our guests did

46:51

have to see this and we

46:54

obviously do not want this. California's

46:57

State OSHA investigated the Ken Peters

46:59

event and issued an 18 page report

47:02

in 2007 that warned, the

47:04

contributing factors to the

47:05

accident and the simplest of terms is that

47:08

swimming with captive orcas is inherently dangerous

47:11

and if someone hasn't been killed already, it

47:13

is only a matter of time before it does happen.

47:17

SeaWorld

47:17

successfully challenged the report.

47:19

It was withdrawn, revised

47:21

and reissued 10 pages shorter.

47:24

The most damaging information was removed, including

47:26

the dire warning. It's been

47:28

rumored that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

47:31

personally intervened. The

47:33

governator was a well-known friend and political

47:36

ally of August Bush the 4th of

47:38

Anheuser-Busch, the family company

47:40

that purchased SeaWorld in 1989. It's unbelievable that

47:43

a

47:46

commercial corporation was able

47:48

to influence what should

47:50

have been an objective

47:52

investigation by an agency

47:55

whose sole function is to protect

47:58

worker safety.

47:59

That's Naomi Rose, a marine mammal

48:02

scientist who worked for the Humane Society

48:04

of the United States. She argued

48:06

that withdrawing the original 2007 OSHA

48:09

report led to avoidable deaths. Not

48:11

only Don Brancho but also Alexis Martinez,

48:14

who two months earlier was battered to

48:16

death at Laurel Parkay in the Canary Islands

48:18

by a sea world owned orca named Keto.

48:21

Alexis was bleeding from every orifice.

48:24

Laurel Parkay reported no signs of

48:26

violence. It was an unwritten

48:28

rule never to blame the whales. Why?

48:32

Money, money, money, a former

48:34

sea world trainer named John Jed told the San

48:36

Diego Tribune. "'Sea World' is the

48:38

new Ringling Brothers Circus," he said.

48:41

"'Only now the draw is pretty girls in tight

48:43

wetsuits interacting with large carnivores

48:45

and environments that are in no way related to

48:48

their natural history, except maybe

48:50

the salt water.'"

48:52

Other former sea world trainers came forward

48:54

with similar sentiments. The same

48:56

thing so many scientists, academics,

48:59

veterinarians, environmentalists, and

49:01

activists were saying.

49:02

Orcas, killer whales, are

49:05

too large, too smart, too conscious,

49:08

and too family-oriented to be kept

49:10

in captivity.

49:12

They're truly remarkable animals. Orcas

49:15

are the largest member of the Dauphin family.

49:17

They live in highly complex and highly

49:19

social matriarchal societies, each

49:22

with its own culture and communication. Hell

49:25

Orcas stay with their mothers for their entire lives,

49:27

and separation is not an

49:29

insignificant issue. This

49:32

is Ricco Berry, former trainer

49:34

of flipper the Dauphin turned animal

49:36

rights activist. What a

49:38

violation of nature, and what hypocrisy

49:41

to say

49:42

we're capturing these dolphins and

49:44

bringing them to the Miami Seaquarium or Sea

49:46

World or some other part, so

49:48

that we can teach you respect

49:50

for nature.

49:52

Respect for nature doesn't look like this.

49:55

Captive Orcas develop cataracts and eye damage

49:57

from the hot suns in Florida, California.

50:00

in Texas. They're fed fish filled

50:02

with antibiotics to treat the constant

50:04

infections resulting from impaired immunity.

50:06

They become less vocal because these signals

50:09

bouncing off the tank's walls are maddening. When

50:12

the wild orcas swim up to 100 miles

50:14

a day,

50:15

in captivity, they bang their heads

50:17

against the wall for fun.

50:19

It's theorized that a lack of physical activity

50:21

is what leads to the collapse of the dorsal fin

50:23

seen in 100% of captive males.

50:26

In the wild, dorsal fin collapse is

50:28

seen in less than 1%, and

50:30

part of that 1% includes two orcas

50:33

exposed to the Exxon Valdez oil spill,

50:35

both of which died within two years.

50:39

SeaWorld disputes these numbers, but male

50:41

orcas can live as long as 60 years in the wild,

50:43

and captivity males rarely reach 30.

50:47

Wild females can live to be 90 years

50:49

old.

50:49

Captive females typically die before the

50:51

age of 50.

50:53

One of the reasons orcas live so long in the wild

50:56

is because they have no natural predators. They

50:58

do not kill each other, and they do

51:00

not kill humans. There's only one

51:03

documented orca attack on humans in the wild,

51:05

a surfer in a wetsuit mistaken for his

51:07

seal in 1972.

51:11

So where's all of this uncharacteristic

51:13

aggression coming from? Gee,

51:15

I wonder. So,

51:18

Annie Tank is too small. I would

51:20

like SeaWorld to consider

51:23

retiring him to an open ocean

51:25

sea pen and seeing

51:28

whether they can lessen

51:30

some of the stress he suffers from. Again,

51:33

I think they're just fooling themselves if they argue, oh, there's

51:36

nothing unusual about this, or Tilikin is

51:38

just fine with this situation. He's clearly not just

51:40

fine with this situation.

51:44

SeaWorld always favored the testimony

51:46

that Tilikin pulled Dawn Brancho into the pool

51:48

by her hair, but somehow made the whales'

51:50

actions look more benign and less

51:52

unpredictably violent.

51:55

Otherwise, the company might have to acknowledge that

51:57

there was something seriously wrong with

51:59

its whales.

51:59

But the fact is the company already

52:02

knew Tillicombe was dangerous. The Kelty

52:04

Byrne incident, the Daniel Dukes incident.

52:07

Tillicombe was the only whale of 26 that trainers

52:09

were forbidden to swim with. Linda

52:12

Simmons, SeaWorld's former safety chief,

52:14

divulged this information and more after

52:16

she says the company fired her for cooperating

52:19

with OSHA investigators.

52:20

The Tillie talk is an

52:22

orientation for anyone coming

52:25

into the stadium to work with the whales. Whether

52:27

you've been at SeaWorld and other positions

52:29

or you're brand new to SeaWorld, what

52:32

they do is they talk to you about

52:34

going in the water with Tillie that if you

52:36

get into the water with Tillie you will come out of corpse.

52:39

Letting them know how dangerous an animal

52:42

he is.

52:43

SeaWorld argued that its orcas, such

52:45

as Tillicombe, were not dangerous and

52:47

did not live solitary lives. They

52:49

received world-class health care. They're

52:52

free from the pollution and dwindling food

52:54

supplies of their natural environment

52:56

and they're providing an educational service to

52:58

the public.

52:59

And their managers, investors, other

53:01

aquarium owners, some former and

53:03

current trainers and politicians whose

53:06

constituents benefit from their parks agreed

53:08

with them.

53:10

On August 23, 2010, the

53:12

US Labor Department's OSHA cited

53:14

SeaWorld for three safety violations.

53:17

A serious violation for

53:19

a missing handrail on a staircase leading

53:21

up to a bridge on one of the stages,

53:23

an other-than-serious violation for

53:26

weather-exposed electrical outlets,

53:28

and a willful violation for

53:30

exposing its employees to danger by

53:33

having them interact with killer whales. OSHA's

53:36

probe revealed that quote,

53:38

SeaWorld trainers had an extensive history

53:40

of unexpected and potentially dangerous

53:42

incidents involving killer whales at its various

53:44

facilities.

53:45

Despite this record, management failed

53:48

to make meaningful changes to improve the safety

53:50

of the work environment for its employees.

53:53

SeaWorld was fined a measly $75,000

53:56

for the three infractions,

53:59

but their trainers were effectively banned from

54:01

working with the whales in the water.

54:03

It was a huge blow.

54:04

Again, this is Naomi Rose.

54:06

They are not machines. They

54:09

are not domesticated

54:11

animals that SeaWorld can control. They have this

54:13

idea that they can control these animals, and

54:15

they can't.

54:16

SeaWorld

54:18

called OSHA's findings unfounded and

54:20

would spend the next several years fighting it in court.

54:24

The month after the ruling, in October 2010, Kalina,

54:28

aka Baby Shamu, died

54:30

unexpectedly at SeaWorld Orlando. Kalina

54:33

was the first orca born in captivity

54:35

back in 1985. She was

54:37

a little troublemaker when she was younger, so

54:40

much so that SeaWorld abruptly transferred Baby

54:42

Shamu out of Florida to SeaWorld Ohio,

54:44

which has since closed. Kalina's

54:47

mother, Katina, reportedly remained

54:49

immobile in the corner of the pool from which her

54:51

child disappeared. She welled in

54:53

grief throughout the night.

54:55

This is the second whale death

54:57

here at SeaWorld any year

54:59

that's been marked by tragedy. This

55:02

morning, SeaWorld is confirming that

55:04

Kalina, a 25-year-old

55:06

killer whale, died unexpectedly

55:08

after a sudden illness on Monday.

55:11

A few months earlier, Taima, a

55:13

20-year-old orca, died giving

55:15

birth to a stillbirth calf in Orlando.

55:18

SeaWorld continues to spend millions of dollars on

55:21

advertising what they're doing for the Gulf Coast, but

55:23

like BP, their image has also become tarnished

55:25

by these recent tragedies of the death of a trainer

55:28

and now the death of a baby killer whale and the mother.

55:31

That's Brian Wilson of People for the Ethical

55:33

Treatment of Animals, PETA, who would

55:35

later file a lawsuit asking the court to

55:38

rule that SeaWorld's orcas were held in

55:40

illegal involuntary servitude in

55:42

violation of the 13th Amendment of the

55:44

United States Constitution.

55:46

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey T. Miller

55:49

rolled against PETA because slavery

55:51

and involuntary servitude are uniquely

55:54

human activities.

55:56

Lucky us.

55:57

Despite the victory, the lawsuit was more

55:59

bad.

55:59

publicity for SeaWorld.

56:01

It was an avalanche of terrible optics.

56:04

How could it get any worse? Tonight

56:06

at 11. Accusations of child rape

56:09

at SeaWorld. Good evening.

56:11

I'm sorry I asked. Let's

56:13

stick with the whales. Right

56:15

now what we're doing is we're preparing

56:18

the whales to begin the

56:20

desensitization process and to

56:22

start from the beginning. Even though many

56:24

of these whales have a vast amount

56:26

of experience, we're going to bring kind of everybody back to

56:29

the beginning.

56:30

SeaWorld was getting back to the basics.

56:33

All of its orcas training would be reinforced

56:35

and re-evaluated.

56:36

By March 2011, even Tilikum

56:39

was performing again alongside his grandson.

56:42

In May 2012,

56:43

Judge Ken S. Welsh sided with

56:45

OSHA when SeaWorld appealed the citations

56:47

that was keeping its trainers out of the water.

56:50

Welsh stated, it is implausible and

56:52

difficult to reconcile claims made by SeaWorld

56:55

that the company was unaware that its animals

56:57

posed the danger.

56:59

However, Judge Welsh did agree that

57:01

the company had emphasized trainer safety, even

57:03

if its procedures were largely ineffective.

57:06

As a result, he downgraded the severity

57:08

of the citations and SeaWorld's total

57:11

fine was reduced to $12,000.

57:15

SeaWorld would continue the fight to overturn

57:17

even that ruling because its trainers

57:19

still could not return to water work.

57:22

The company argued that having the trainers in the water

57:24

with the whales was fundamental to its business.

57:27

One year later,

57:28

SeaWorld's business would be front page

57:30

news.

57:32

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59:03

Blackfish

59:25

premiered at the 2013 Sundance

59:27

Film Festival. It's a documentary

59:30

directed by Gabriella Calpertway that

59:32

explores the link between

59:33

Telecom's attack on Don Brancho and

59:35

the consequences of keeping orcas in captivity.

59:38

The film includes interviews with former trainers,

59:41

scientists, and witnesses. It followed

59:43

on the heels of an equally devastating expose

59:45

by David Kirby titled Death at SeaWorld

59:48

published in 2012, which followed

59:50

Tim Zimmerman's 2010 long-form article

59:53

in Outside magazine called The Killer in the

59:55

Pool.

59:56

The concern for captive killer whales was reaching

59:58

the mainstream consciousness.

59:59

Magnolia Films picked

1:00:02

up Blackfish for broader distribution, so

1:00:04

did CNN, who aired the film in its

1:00:06

entirety on primetime. The

1:00:09

public was horrified and demanded change.

1:00:12

Legislation to ban orca shows and breeding

1:00:14

garnered momentum in New York, California,

1:00:17

and at the federal level. SeaWorld

1:00:19

went into damage control mode and spent half

1:00:21

a million dollars on political lobbying in

1:00:23

the first half of 2014. SeaWorld

1:00:26

called Blackfish misinformed, sensational

1:00:28

propaganda. The company released a

1:00:30

statement, quote, Blackfish

1:00:33

is inaccurate and misleading and regrettably

1:00:36

exploits a tragedy. The film paints

1:00:38

a distorted picture that withholds key facts

1:00:40

about SeaWorld. That SeaWorld rescues,

1:00:42

rehabilitates, and returns to the wild hundreds

1:00:44

of wild animals every year and that SeaWorld

1:00:47

commits millions of dollars annually to conservation

1:00:49

and scientific research. SeaWorld

1:00:53

also purchased full-page newspaper ads

1:00:55

in the largest markets that address some of

1:00:57

the film's claims. For example, the

1:00:59

letter states SeaWorld does not capture killer

1:01:01

whales in the wild. We do not separate

1:01:03

killer whale moms and calves. SeaWorld's

1:01:06

killer whales' life spans are equivalent with

1:01:08

those in the wild. Even

1:01:10

if those things were true and most scientists

1:01:13

agree that they are not, the damage from

1:01:15

Blackfish was already taking place. It

1:01:17

was too late. The SeaWorld

1:01:19

trainer Barbie was discontinued. Pixar

1:01:22

changed the ending to its script for Finding Dory,

1:01:25

which originally called for the characters to be sent

1:01:27

to a SeaWorld-like aquatic park to live

1:01:29

happily ever after. Also

1:01:31

eight of ten musical acts pulled out of SeaWorld's

1:01:34

upcoming concert series. Willie

1:01:36

Nelson, the Bear Naked Ladies, Ariel

1:01:38

Speedwagon, all said thanks

1:01:40

but no thanks to the amusement park.

1:01:43

This particular slight rubbed some people at

1:01:45

SeaWorld headquarters the wrong way. Fred

1:01:48

Jacobs, the company's spokesperson, wrote

1:01:51

in an email to a coworker in 2013, God,

1:01:54

we look like idiots. This whole fucking

1:01:56

thing pisses me off. What relentless

1:01:58

amateurism we've shown in the past.

1:01:59

booking these fucking people and managing

1:02:02

the whole fucking chocolate mess.

1:02:05

An

1:02:05

email from later that year showed just how desperate

1:02:08

SeaWorld was getting. In December 2013,

1:02:10

the Orlando Business Journal

1:02:13

posted a poll on its website asking, Has

1:02:16

CNN's Blackfish documentary changed

1:02:18

your perception of SeaWorld? Surprisingly, 99%

1:02:22

of the vote sided with the amusement park. However,

1:02:25

it was soon discovered that 55% of the votes

1:02:28

had come from a single SeaWorld-owned

1:02:30

IP address. Marketing director

1:02:32

Nick Galatzczyk had discovered an exploit

1:02:35

in the web poll that would allow a visitor

1:02:37

to vote multiple times. He shared

1:02:39

it with his colleagues. The poll is still

1:02:41

running, let's keep flooding it, he wrote in

1:02:43

an email sent on Christmas Eve. Happy

1:02:46

holidays

1:02:46

and keep voting. Ho, ho, vote.

1:02:49

It's just embarrassing. Attendance

1:02:52

was down, revenues were down, the

1:02:54

brand was toxic, but in public,

1:02:57

SeaWorld put on a positive face. As

1:03:00

much as we're asked that, we can see no noticeable

1:03:03

impact on our business. CEO

1:03:05

Jim Adjison told analysts on a conference

1:03:07

call when asked if Blackfish had affected the

1:03:09

company's bottom line. The movie

1:03:11

in some ways has actually made perhaps more

1:03:13

interest in marine mammal parks and

1:03:16

actually even about us, so we've seen

1:03:18

that reflected through certain visitor profiles

1:03:20

and certain guest comments and things we

1:03:22

get. Jim Adjison

1:03:24

was lying and he knew it. SeaWorld

1:03:27

had suffered a $15.9 million

1:03:29

loss because of the movie, which they blamed

1:03:31

on high ticket prices and bad weather. But

1:03:34

instead of sharing this insight with investors,

1:03:37

Adjison quietly sold his own stock to

1:03:39

keep the company afloat. In

1:03:42

August 2014, SeaWorld finally

1:03:44

came clean and admitted that Blackfish

1:03:46

had heard its revenue. The company's stock

1:03:48

price fell 33%. The potential

1:03:51

for business altering legislation spooked

1:03:53

new investors. Meanwhile, old

1:03:56

investors were filing a class-action lawsuit

1:03:58

against SeaWorld for misleading

1:03:59

them about the blackfish effect on revenue, SeaWorld

1:04:02

would later settle that lawsuit for $65 million.

1:04:07

Now according to filings with the U.S.

1:04:09

Securities and Exchange Commission, SeaWorld

1:04:11

will pay

1:04:12

$65 million

1:04:13

to settle the class action lawsuit.

1:04:16

Now under the agreement, SeaWorld admits

1:04:18

no wrongdoing. CEO

1:04:21

Jim Atchison resigned in December 2014. He

1:04:24

later paid $5 million to settle federal

1:04:27

charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission

1:04:29

for his role in hiding the negative impact

1:04:32

of blackfish on the company. Atchison

1:04:34

was replaced by Joel Manby, who

1:04:36

previously managed Dollywood. Manby

1:04:39

immediately instituted layoffs, mainly

1:04:41

in SeaWorld's marketing department. His

1:04:44

goal was to repair the company's brand aggressively.

1:04:47

SeaWorld launched a new website called AskSeaWorld.com

1:04:51

to help dispel some of the misinformation

1:04:53

popularized by the movies and books. The

1:04:56

company also launched a social media Q&A,

1:04:59

which backfired spectacularly. Joel

1:05:02

Manby also ordered some SeaWorld workers

1:05:04

to work undercover and infiltrate PETA.

1:05:07

He later claimed it was to find out what the animal activists

1:05:09

were planning so SeaWorld could protect

1:05:11

its employees and customers accordingly. SeaWorld

1:05:15

also set its targets on a former trainer

1:05:17

named John Hargrove. John had

1:05:19

appeared in Blackfish and was preparing to

1:05:21

release his own book. In response,

1:05:23

an organization related to SeaWorld built

1:05:26

a website called RealJohnHargrove.com where

1:05:29

it published a 5-year-old video of

1:05:31

the intoxicated former trainer using

1:05:33

racial slurs while on the phone.

1:05:36

They did a really good job of

1:05:38

doctoring the footage to sell

1:05:40

their agenda. You're lying about how

1:05:43

we care about these animals. You're lying

1:05:45

about the benefits of having these

1:05:47

animals in a zoo and aquarium.

1:05:49

There's no evil empire. I

1:05:51

am not an evil Darth Vader minion, you

1:05:53

know. I have a heart too and I would

1:05:56

not have worked the career that I did and

1:05:58

come to work every day that I did. did if

1:06:00

I felt that these animals were ever treated

1:06:03

like anything other than royalty.

1:06:04

Blackfish really hit me

1:06:07

because I believe wholeheartedly

1:06:09

in what I do. I believe that what I do makes

1:06:12

a difference in the animals' lives and

1:06:14

in people's lives. The one thing that I want people

1:06:17

to know after watching the movie is that it's

1:06:19

not true.

1:06:23

SeaWorld was fighting back. It

1:06:25

even announced that it was building new, larger

1:06:27

tanks for the orcas at every one of its parks.

1:06:30

These improvements had little effect. Attendance

1:06:33

continued to fall. By August 2015, SeaWorld

1:06:37

had experienced an 84% reduction

1:06:39

in profit from previous years. The

1:06:41

company ramped up its public relations campaign

1:06:44

even more.

1:06:44

Our

1:06:57

male killer whales do have dorsal fins that

1:06:59

are bent. The dorsal fin is not an indicator

1:07:02

of

1:07:05

the

1:07:08

animal's overall health. The truth of the

1:07:10

matter is that all toothed

1:07:12

whales and dolphins rake each other. This

1:07:14

is how these animals interact with each other.

1:07:18

Again, SeaWorld's defense was

1:07:20

falling on deaf ears.

1:07:22

So in November 2015, the company

1:07:25

finally acknowledged which way the wind was

1:07:27

blowing and announced that its killer

1:07:29

whale shows would be phased out permanently.

1:07:33

We are listening to our guests, CEO

1:07:35

Joel Manby announced. We are evolving

1:07:37

as a company. We are always changing.

1:07:41

However,

1:07:42

Manby denied that the change resulted from pressure

1:07:44

from environmentalists. We didn't do it

1:07:46

from activists, he said. Frankly, the

1:07:49

activists will not be pleased with anything we do.

1:07:51

He was right.

1:07:53

PETA issued a statement in response to

1:07:55

the news, quote, an

1:07:57

end to SeaWorld's Todrie circus style

1:07:59

shows as a

1:07:59

inevitable and necessary, but its

1:08:02

captivity that denies these far ranging

1:08:04

orcas everything that is natural and important

1:08:06

to them.

1:08:07

This move is like no longer whipping lions in

1:08:09

the circus act but keeping them locked inside

1:08:11

cages for life, or no longer beating

1:08:14

dogs but never letting them out of crates.

1:08:17

A few months later, SeaWorld made another

1:08:20

surprise announcement.

1:08:23

Some

1:08:23

say, free the whales. For

1:08:26

them nothing else is acceptable, but

1:08:28

nothing could be worse for the whales.

1:08:32

Most of the orcas at SeaWorld were born here.

1:08:35

Sending them into the wild wouldn't be noble.

1:08:38

It could be fatal. When

1:08:41

they freed Keiko, the killer whale of movie fame,

1:08:44

the effort was a failure and he perished.

1:08:47

But we also understand that times have changed. Today

1:08:50

people are concerned about the world's largest animals

1:08:53

like never before. So

1:08:56

we too must change. That's

1:08:58

why the orcas in our care will be the last

1:09:00

generation at SeaWorld. There

1:09:03

will be no more breeding. We're

1:09:05

also phasing out orca theatrical shows. They'll

1:09:09

continue to receive the highest standard of care

1:09:11

available anywhere. And

1:09:13

guests can come to see them simply being their majestic

1:09:16

selves. Inspiring the next

1:09:18

generation of people to love them as

1:09:20

you do.

1:09:24

In March 2016, SeaWorld

1:09:26

pledged to end its orca breeding

1:09:28

program. Again, CEO

1:09:30

Joel Mambi said the decision was influenced

1:09:33

by society's shifting attitude towards keeping

1:09:35

killer whales in captivity, though he

1:09:37

elected to use some softer language.

1:09:40

It's about where society

1:09:43

is shifting. I have seen

1:09:45

clearly that society is changing their

1:09:47

attitude about these unbelievable, majestic

1:09:50

animals being in human care.

1:09:53

This meant that SeaWorld's 29 orcas

1:09:55

would remain in captivity and on display

1:09:58

until the day they died.

1:09:59

Activists noted that the company was still breeding

1:10:02

other animals, and that the announcement's timing

1:10:04

was a bit suspect, considering

1:10:06

the condition of their primary stud.

1:10:09

The star of SeaWorld's

1:10:11

killer whale show is very sick. SeaWorld

1:10:14

says Tilikum, his notorious 12,000

1:10:16

pound killer whale, is not doing

1:10:18

very well until recently Tilikum performed

1:10:21

at Shamu Stadium, even after the death

1:10:23

of trainer Don Brancho in 2010.

1:10:25

I wish I could say

1:10:27

I was tremendously

1:10:30

optimistic about Tilikum

1:10:36

in his future. But

1:10:40

he has a

1:10:42

disease which is

1:10:45

chronic and progressive, and

1:10:49

at some point might cause

1:10:52

his death.

1:10:54

Tilikum died on January 6, 2017. His

1:10:58

cause of death is listed as a bacterial

1:11:00

infection. Throughout his life,

1:11:02

Tilikum fathered 21 calves.

1:11:05

At the time of his death, only 9 of

1:11:07

them remained alive.

1:11:17

The last killer whale born in captivity

1:11:19

at SeaWorld occurred a few months after

1:11:22

Tilikum's death on April 19, 2017, in

1:11:24

San Antonio. That

1:11:27

baby orca's name was Kiara.

1:11:29

She died 96 days later.

1:11:31

SeaWorld has yet to confirm the cause

1:11:33

of death, but said in a statement they

1:11:35

do not believe it was the result of being held

1:11:38

in captivity.

1:11:39

Curiously, even though SeaWorld

1:11:42

pledged to stop breeding orcas back in 2016,

1:11:44

the company spent 2018 trying

1:11:47

to block federal legislation that wouldn't

1:11:49

even give them the option.

1:11:54

Orlando.

1:12:00

A California lawmaker has filed a bill in Congress

1:12:03

that would not only ban Orcus from being captured,

1:12:06

but it would also stop companies like SeaWorld

1:12:08

from breeding the whales in captivity.

1:12:11

More challenges lay ahead.

1:12:12

SeaWorld survived the COVID-19 pandemic

1:12:15

by furloughing 95% of its staff

1:12:17

without a paycheck or health benefits.

1:12:20

After raising more than $227 million

1:12:22

dollars through a private offering in March 2020, the

1:12:25

company faced backlash when it sought

1:12:28

an emergency loan from the federal government

1:12:30

worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars more

1:12:33

despite having only paid less than $8 million

1:12:35

in total income taxes in the previous 10

1:12:38

years. According to the Orlando

1:12:40

Sentinel, SeaWorld had amassed more than $556

1:12:44

million worth of tax credits when

1:12:46

Anheuser-Bus sold it to the Blackstone Group

1:12:48

in 2009. That

1:12:50

makes them smart. In the third quarter,

1:12:53

we generated among our highest revenue

1:12:55

and net income ever reported. The

1:12:58

earnings report showed huge gains

1:13:00

in attendance and revenue from 2020 figures.

1:13:04

2021 and beyond has been

1:13:07

encouraging for SeaWorld as the company

1:13:09

has pivoted more towards thrill rides and

1:13:11

educational shows rather than circus acts

1:13:13

and breeding. They partnered with a company

1:13:15

in Abu Dhabi to open the world's largest

1:13:18

aquarium, which is set to open in 2023. SeaWorld

1:13:22

Abu Dhabi will be totally

1:13:23

orca-free.

1:13:25

However, worldwide there

1:13:27

are still 55 orcas in

1:13:29

captivity.

1:13:32

It's heartbreaking video. A

1:13:35

killer whale seen banging its head

1:13:37

against a tank. Kiska,

1:13:39

a 45-year-old

1:13:43

orca, lives in total isolation

1:13:46

at Marine Land Park in Niagara Falls,

1:13:48

Canada. Experts who have reviewed Kiska's

1:13:50

conditions have said that she's probably

1:13:52

the loneliest orca in the world because she has no

1:13:55

companionship whatsoever.

1:13:59

Kiska died from a bacterial

1:14:02

infection on March 11, 2023. Kiska

1:14:05

was 47 years old. She was

1:14:08

captured in Iceland in 1979 alongside Keiko. Kiska

1:14:12

spent more than 40 of those years in a tank

1:14:14

by herself.

1:14:16

Rest in paradise. 54 orcas

1:14:20

in captivity

1:14:21

and counting.

1:14:33

Swindled is written, researched, produced,

1:14:35

and hosted by me, a concerned citizen,

1:14:37

with original music by Trevor Howard,

1:14:40

aka Deformer, aka Baby

1:14:43

Shamu. For more information about

1:14:45

Swindled, you can visit SwindledPodcast.com

1:14:47

and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and

1:14:49

TikTok at Swindled Podcast. Or

1:14:52

you can send us a postcard at PO Box 6044 Austin, Texas 78762.

1:14:58

But please no packages. We do not

1:15:00

trust you. Swindled is a

1:15:02

completely independent production, which

1:15:05

means no network, no investors, no bosses,

1:15:07

no shadowy moneymen, no captive

1:15:09

orcas. Not a single one. And

1:15:12

we plan to keep it that way. But we need your support.

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Become a Valued Listener on Patreon, Apple

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Thanks for listening.

1:16:03

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