95. The Captive (SeaWorld)

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Speaker 3 Come on, Willie. I know you can do a boy.
I know you can jump this wall.

Speaker 3 Come on, I believe in you, Willie! You can do it! You can be free! Come on! You can jump it!

Speaker 1 Free Willie hit theaters in the summer of 1993. It was a movie about a good-hearted but troubled orphan named Jesse, who befriends a frustrated captive orca whale named Willie.

Speaker 1 Willie was housed at an amusement park where Jesse cleaned graffiti to satisfy court-ordered community service.

Speaker 1 Long story short, Jesse successfully returns Willie to the ocean after uncovering plans by the amusement park's owners to kill the whale to collect on a $1 million insurance policy.

Speaker 1 Not a dry eye in the house. Free Willie was a massive box office success.
Critics called it truly inspiring. Michael Jackson wrote an original song for the soundtrack.
It was a big deal at the time.

Speaker 1 Two sequels hit the big screen before the decade was over. All three starred a kid named Jason James Richter, who played Jesse.

Speaker 1 Willie the Whale was eventually replaced with CGI, but in the original movie, the role was portrayed by a real-life orca named Keiko.

Speaker 5 Keiko is the only killer whale in all of Mexico. He's become a national treasure, and now he's become a national movie star.

Speaker 1 Unfortunately for Keiko, the undeniable art of Free Willie imitated his life. Keiko had been captured off the coast of Iceland 14 years before the movie was released.

Speaker 1 At two years old, Keiko was sold to Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario, where he was bullied relentlessly by the other orcas.

Speaker 1 Mercifully, Keiko was sold again in 1985 to Reino Aventura, Latin America's largest amusement park at the time, located in Mexico City. The conditions were inadequate, to say the least.

Speaker 1 Keiko, a 10-foot-long orca, was housed in a 22-foot-deep pool filled with warm Mexican tap water, supplemented with bags of salt now and then. The sun was relentless.

Speaker 1 Keiko was literally cooking in his environment. He developed lesions all over his skin.

Speaker 10 He also has what's known as a papilloma virus, which causes lesions similar to warts on humans, but that's a result of a weak or suppressed immune system.

Speaker 1 Keiko spent the next 10 years swimming small lethargic circles in his own feces

Speaker 1 between three performances a day. You could see the outline of Keiko's skull and rib cage through his malnourished skin.

Speaker 1 His dorsal fin was limp and folded, and his teeth were worn down to nubs from grinding them against the concrete walls that housed him.

Speaker 1 There were no other orcas at the park with which he could commiserate.

Speaker 1 Keiko's pathetic condition was a significant part of why he was chosen to star in Free Willie.

Speaker 1 The producers initially approached SeaWorld about using one of their whales, but the company passed because they strongly disagreed with the whole part about, you know, freeing a whale from captivity.

Speaker 1 It's kind of their entire business model. Luckily for Warner Brothers, the owners of Reino Aventura admittedly had not bothered to read the script before agreeing to rent their whale.

Speaker 1 Even better, the deplorable nature of Keiko's facility would suit the film perfectly.

Speaker 1 But for everyone involved in the production of Free Willie, the images were hard to shake. When the shoot wrapped and everyone returned to the U.S., they felt like they left Keiko behind to suffer.

Speaker 1 So the producers took action by including a toll-free phone number for the International Marine Mammal Project during the film's credits while posing a question to the audience, quote, How far would you go for a friend?

Speaker 8 That's why the Marine Mammal Rescue Center is such a fantastic thing.

Speaker 15 Not only for Keiko, but for other orcas, dolphins, and porpoises.

Speaker 16 So pick up the phone.

Speaker 17 Dial 1-800 for whales.

Speaker 1 Children all over the world donated every sticky penny they could muster. They emptied their piggy banks, saved their lunch monies, and organized unlicensed bake sales and lemonade stands.

Speaker 1 Millions of dollars were raised in a short amount of time. Warner Brothers and related studios noticed and donated $2 million of their own instead of paying their riders.

Speaker 1 The Humane Society of the United States donated a million.

Speaker 1 And Craig McCall, a billionaire cell phone business pioneer and his wife Wendy, donated a million of their own with the promise promise of more.

Speaker 1 In February 1995, the funds were pulled together to form a new non-profit, the Free Willie Keiko Foundation. Their mission was to rehabilitate Keiko and maybe release him back into the wild someday.

Speaker 12 Free Willie Foundation is a non-profit organization that is bringing together the experts on orcas and dolphins to design a new state-of-the-art facility at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

Speaker 12 And it'll give Keiko more room to swim and the special attention he needs. Expert trainers will teach him to survive if he's ever released into the wild.

Speaker 12 The rescue center is the first project ever designed to do just that.

Speaker 1 $7.3 million would be used to build a state-of-the-art tank at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon.

Speaker 1 It would be four to five times the size of Keiko's Mexican tank and contain actual seawater. There would be no more performances, no more excruciating sunshine, and there would be plenty of food.

Speaker 1 There was just one last thing the Foundation had to do before they could make Keiko's life a bit more bearable. They had to convince Reino Aventura to give up their prized whale.

Speaker 1 And SeaWorld wasn't helping.

Speaker 4 If Keiko is set free, other theme parks may be pressured to release their captive whales.

Speaker 4 SeaWorld Incorporated, the world leader in captive whales, has agreed to install cooling equipment in Keiko's Mexican pool. SeaWorld is against setting him free.

Speaker 4 And in Mexico, Keiko's owners are listening to SeaWorld's arguments.

Speaker 1 The owners of Reino Aventura could not deny that Keiko was in poor health. A veterinarian told the park that he wouldn't survive in those conditions much longer.

Speaker 1 Reino had tried to sell Keiko to SeaWorld before the movie came out, but SeaWorld wasn't interested because of his warts.

Speaker 1 But now that there was talk of freeing Keiko, suddenly SeaWorld was very concerned about his well-being.

Speaker 1 Brad Andrews, SeaWorld's chief zoological officer, told Florida Today, quote, I don't think it's fair and humane to the animal to try this operation just to make a few people happy.

Speaker 1 Reino Adventura wasn't interested in SeaWorld's offer to install cooling equipment.

Speaker 1 And the only other option besides keeping Keiko was to sell him to Michael Jackson, who offered to house the orca at Neverland Ranch, a fate much worse than death. The choice was obvious.

Speaker 1 Reino Adventura donated Keiko to the Free Willie Keiko Foundation.

Speaker 18 We feel very sad, but at the same time, we feel happy because we are convinced that we are offering Keiko

Speaker 1 an opportunity, an opportunity to have a different life, a nice life.

Speaker 1 After one final performance in Mexico City, Keiko was flown overnight to Oregon, courtesy of UPS on January 7, 1996.

Speaker 1 Two of Keiko's Mexican trainers traveled with him since he only responded to commands in Spanish. As many as 100,000 people lined the expressway to the airport to see him off.

Speaker 1 After a year in his new tank, Keiko gained 2,000 pounds. His warts had disappeared.
He had more energy. He was more playful.
And he could now hold his breath for up to 20 minutes.

Speaker 1 When he first arrived in Oregon, Keiko, the killer whale, could only hold his breath for two minutes.

Speaker 16 What we're starting to see now is an animal who's starting to explore his environment, who's starting to manipulate his own environment, and become master of his environment within this environment here, the pool that he lives in.

Speaker 1 As Keiko's condition improved, the Free Willie Keiko Foundation became more encouraged that he could be successfully reintroduced to the Icelandic waters from which he came.

Speaker 1 Many thought that that was a delusional idea, including Steiner Bastison, a pro-whaling Norwegian politician who called the efforts, quote, a lunatic waste of money.

Speaker 1 There are more than enough killer whales around, he said, adding, the only good killer whale is a dead one.

Speaker 1 Bastison suggested making 60,000 meatballs out of Keiko and sending them to starving children in Africa.

Speaker 1 Other opponents had more reasoned takes.

Speaker 1 John Gunnerson, the Icelandic aquarium owner who first captured Keiko, was convinced returning to the wild a whale who had been in captivity for 18 years would never work.

Speaker 1 He's too different from them, Gunnerson said. and he will always rely on humans.
The conservation people won't listen. They don't want reality.
They want the romantic story.

Speaker 1 The Oregon Coast Aquarium, where Keiko was currently housed, was also against releasing him. The Free Willie Keiko Foundation discounted their opinion because there existed a conflict of interest.

Speaker 1 Keiko's presence had doubled the aquarium's annual attendance, pumping $75 million into the local economy. Of course, they wanted him to stay.

Speaker 19 And our missions, as we are learning painfully, are different than that of the aquarium. The Free Willie Keiko Foundation's mission is rescue, rehabilitation, and release.

Speaker 21 That's our business.

Speaker 19 The aquarium is in the display business.

Speaker 1 Legally, Keiko was in the custody of the Free Willie Keiko Foundation, and they felt that he had shown enough promise of returning to the wild to take the next step.

Speaker 1 So on September 9th, 1998, after 32 months at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Keiko, three feet longer and 3,800 pounds heavier than the first time he was moved, was flown to the southern coast of Iceland, where he was housed in a pen in Kletzfix Bay.

Speaker 1 The Foundation's trainers hope to teach him how to fend for himself.

Speaker 13 He spent the last, you know, 20 years being fed by humans. He needs to learn how to actually be able to handle it,

Speaker 13 find fish, catch fish, and eat fish on his own. So what we're doing right now is we're bridging

Speaker 13 that gap between humans feeding him all the time and Keiko feeding himself completely.

Speaker 1 Keiko was also encouraged to explore. His caretakers would lure him into the open ocean on supervised walks where Keiko would follow the boat.
Every now and then a pot of wild orcas would swim by.

Speaker 1 Keiko would watch from afar and lightly interact with them, but always return to the humans.

Speaker 23 And just when it appeared hope was lost, Keiko is swimming with wild orcas and might well be on his way to independence.

Speaker 23 For a week now, Keiko has been out of his pen in Iceland getting his own food and interacting with wild killer whales. Keiko's human handlers are keeping an eye on him by helicopter.

Speaker 23 They say it is still too soon to tell if Keiko is going to swim away with the migrating orcas who will leave in two to three weeks or stay with his human handlers.

Speaker 23 If Keiko doesn't go, attempts to make him part of an orcopod may be abandoned.

Speaker 1 Just as Keiko showed promise, the project's funding dried up.

Speaker 1 Craig McCall, the billionaire whose foundation contributed millions of dollars a year to freeing Willie, lost $8 billion in the dot-com crash of 2000. He had to cut some costs.

Speaker 1 Still, Keiko made progress even on the new shoestring budget. He was going on longer and longer voyages and staying the night with his friends.

Speaker 1 But disappointingly, he was still returning to his human handlers every time, until July 2002. Finally, Keiko was free.

Speaker 1 Keiko had followed some wild orcas into the open ocean. His former caretakers tracked him for six weeks and 870 miles until he came to a stop in Skalvik Fjord in Norway.

Speaker 1 When they arrived to assess the situation, the researchers found Keiko giving rides to the Norwegian children.

Speaker 1 The good news is, judging by his healthy girth, Keiko hadn't missed a meal on this journey. The bad news is that he was lonely.

Speaker 1 Keiko hadn't been welcomed into a pod and returned to the only thing he had ever known, people.

Speaker 1 Keiko couldn't shake his lifelong connection to people, and at this point, he probably never would.

Speaker 1 The Foundation accepted this reality. They continued taking him on walks.
They continued to feed him.

Speaker 1 Keiko would wander off, and the caretakers would track him until he returned, until one day, he didn't.

Speaker 11 He captured our hearts and minds during his time spent in Oregon and on the big screen, but tonight, Keiko, the killer whale, has died at the age of 27.

Speaker 1 On December 12th, 2003, Keiko's 27-year-old, six-ton carcass was found floating in Tactus Bay. The probable cause of death was pneumonia.

Speaker 1 His caretakers had given him antibiotics the day before when they noticed he had stopped eating.

Speaker 1 Keiko was laid to rest in a private ceremony in a nearby Norwegian pasture, which is usually not permitted.

Speaker 1 Apparently, all the pollution in the ocean absorbed by the whale's bodies poses an environmental hazard when buried. Welcome to Earth.
Go figure.

Speaker 1 Was it a success? Returning Keiko to the wild?

Speaker 1 It depends on who you ask. The positive among us point out that Keiko was able to spend the five final years of his life swimming free in the natural environment.
That was enough for them.

Speaker 1 Was it worth the effort? Was it cost-effective? Are those even the right questions to ask? How about was it moral? Wasn't that what separates us from them?

Speaker 1 It was obvious that Keiko was far from the ideal candidate for testing if a captive killer whale could successfully return to the wild. He'd spent the majority of his life in captivity, in isolation.

Speaker 1 His chances of reintegrating into orca society and not missing a beat were always slim. That was always the most optimistic goal.
Besides, it had already been proven possible on a smaller scale.

Speaker 1 A year before Keiko's death, the U.S. and Canadian governments reunited a young orca named Springer with her pod after she got lost when her mother died.

Speaker 1 Soon after, there was another opportunity to prove reintroduction possible when six-year-old Luna was found separated from his mother near Vancouver Island.

Speaker 1 However, those plans were thwarted by a local group of Native Americans who insisted that Luna was the reincarnated spirit of their dead tribal chief and they wanted him left alone. True story.

Speaker 1 So, Luna lived in the bay for five years, befriending people and playfully chasing vessels until he was sucked into the propellers of a tugboat and diced into unrecoverable pieces.

Speaker 1 See, the ocean is a dark and scary place, reminds SeaWorld, the publicly traded marine amusement park corporation that viewed Keiko's return to the wild as an abject failure.

Speaker 1 Keiko never integrated with other orcas. He was too attached to humans.
He was being fed until the day he died.

Speaker 1 We hate to say we told you so, SeaWorld expressed indirectly, as if it was sentient enough to learn lessons of its own.

Speaker 1 The consequences of keeping one of Earth's most intelligent animals in captivity on this episode of Swindled.

Speaker 24 They bribed government officials to find accounting for clear violations of the AA state law earlier.

Speaker 24 That we have its books and records in the high

Speaker 24 responsible for the collapse of the entire system.

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Speaker 1 Real security that can stop a crime before it starts. Traditional systems wait until it's too late, but Simply Safe's active guard outdoor protection is proactive.

Speaker 1 Their AI-powered cameras detect suspicious activity and real live agents step in.

Speaker 1 They actually talk to potential intruders while they're still outside, trigger sirens, flash spotlights, and let them know the police are on the way. It's wild to watch.

Speaker 1 I've used SimplySafe for years, and I trust it to protect everything that matters to me, even when I'm not home.

Speaker 1 It's reliable, simple, and honestly, kind of satisfying to know someone else is watching when I can't.

Speaker 1 Our listeners get exclusive early access to SimplySafe's Black Friday sale, where you can save 60% on any new system. This is their biggest deal of the year.

Speaker 1 There will never be a better time to get real security for your home. Go to simplysafe.com/slash swindled.
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Speaker 26 And though the killer whale flips around like a tame and harmless porpoise, in fact, he's the most ferocious predator that hunts the seven seas.

Speaker 26 And he can eat a man anytime he likes.

Speaker 1 Swim with me. You're a two-year-old orca whale searching for food with your pod.
You're near the Icelandic coast. The year is 1983.

Speaker 1 All of a a sudden, you come across the mother load. Thousands of herrings appear right in front of your rostrum.
Of course, you feast.

Speaker 1 You almost didn't notice that unfamiliar noise at first, but now it's getting louder. Next, you're swallowed by a rapidly approaching shadow.

Speaker 1 Before you can heed your mother's warning, you find yourself entangled in a net with a couple of your cousins.

Speaker 1 You try to fight your way out for a while, but soon give up when you realize there's no use.

Speaker 1 Suddenly, you're you're ripped out of your environment and placed into a small compartment on a human-piloted boat. That noise starts again.

Speaker 1 It's deafening but unable to drown out your mother's screams.

Speaker 1 Humans haven't yet cracked the code of orca vocalization but they know despair when they hear it and that's the only way to describe the sounds coming from your anguished family.

Speaker 1 Those calls grow fainter hours later when your pod becomes too tired to continue the chase.

Speaker 1 Any sign of your family has disappeared completely, and it's just you and the humans who are now hoisting your 13-foot 2,000-pound body with a sling to put on a truck to be delivered to a marine zoo in Reykjavik.

Speaker 1 And that's where you will be kept in a small tank and near total isolation for an entire calendar year until you are sold like a product to Sea Land of Victoria, British Columbia.

Speaker 15 Sea Land has been a part of Victoria for over 20 years. We specialize in the care and display of killer whales.

Speaker 1 In 1984, Sea Land was looking to replace its orcas who had recently died. Congratulations, Tillicum.
That's your new name. You've been chosen.
We will teach you tricks. We will feed you fish.

Speaker 1 And you will perform eight times a day, seven days a week. Have fun.

Speaker 1 The performances were actually a relief compared to the lonely nights. You, Tillicum, shared a living space with two older, more dominant female orcas.

Speaker 1 They grew up in different pods from different regions, so none of you could communicate. Not that it was necessary.

Speaker 1 The constant raking of your skin with their teeth and chewing on your tail until it looked like hamburger meat let you know exactly where the other orcas stood.

Speaker 1 And there was no way out. When the shows were over, all all three of you were stuffed into a container only 26 feet wide, 14 hours at a time.
Pitch darkness. The conflict was unavoidable.

Speaker 1 Sometimes you, Tillicum, would refuse to go inside the container at the end of a long day. You could sense when the others were in a terrible mood.
And you lived like this for years.

Speaker 1 This gray, dull existence where nothing new ever happens.

Speaker 1 Until it does.

Speaker 1 February 20th, 1991. The day's shows had just ended.
Guests were filing out. The staff was cleaning up when you, Tillicum, hear a splash.
One of the new part-time trainers had fallen into the pool.

Speaker 1 Her name was Kelty Byrne. She was 20 years old.
She was a marine biology student and a competitive swimmer. Kelty screamed when you bit down on her foot.

Speaker 1 The screaming stopped when you dragged her underwater. The older female whales in the pool squealed with delight when they saw your new toy, for which you had no plans of letting go.

Speaker 1 Witnesses say Kelty Burns surfaced on occasion with terror in her eyes. Screams of, I don't want to die, echoed in the nearly empty arena.
There was nothing anyone could do.

Speaker 1 The other trainers threw food in the water to distract you Tilicum, but it didn't work. They threw a life preserver, but the female whales prevented it from reaching your new possession.

Speaker 1 Ten minutes later, which felt like an eternity, you finally let her go.

Speaker 27 They bounced her around the pool a whole bunch of times and she was screaming for help and they tried to...

Speaker 27 They tried to grab her with sticks, but they couldn't get her. And finally, she

Speaker 27 didn't come up anymore.

Speaker 1 Kelty Byrne's lifeless body was retrieved from the pool. She had been stripped entirely naked, save one boot.
There were bite marks all over her body. Her death was ruled an accident.

Speaker 1 Why did you do that, Tilicum?

Speaker 1 Are you in pain? Are you bored? Are you lonely?

Speaker 1 Steve Huxter, the head animal trainer at Seedland, had a theory. They'd never had a plaything in the pool that was so interactive, he said.
They just got incredibly excited and stimulated.

Speaker 1 Animal activists had a different interpretation.

Speaker 29 But animal rights activists were quick to say the whale's behavior was a result of their captivity.

Speaker 31 These are wild animals. They can be dangerous, even though they are generally friendly towards people.

Speaker 31 Living the way they do in the kind of compact environment, they

Speaker 14 go crazy.

Speaker 1 Kelty Burns' death illuminated the physical and mental abuse orcas like Tilicum endured at amusement parks like Sealand of the Victoria, who never recovered from the tragedy.

Speaker 1 Less than a year later, the park announced it was closing its doors for good. Activists encouraged them to release their whales into the wild.

Speaker 1 Sea Land said absolutely not because the orcas trusted humans implicitly.

Speaker 29 The people here at Sea Land say releasing these whales into the wild is simply not an option. That, they say, would be a death sentence.

Speaker 29 So this is where Sea Land's three whales are headed, sold to SeaWorld aquariums around the United States. SeaWorld scientists say they'll be better off here than in the wild.

Speaker 1 In the early 90s, SeaWorld's marine amusement park empire was growing.

Speaker 1 The company had attractions in Florida, Ohio, California, and a new one in Texas, all featuring thrill rides and animal encounters that competing parks could not offer, specifically Killer Wells.

Speaker 1 Killer Whales had been the cornerstone of SeaWorld since its founding in 1964.

Speaker 1 In the early days, SeaWorld would buy orcas captured in the wild, give them the brand name Shamu, and teach them to bow, roll over, wave a fin, and blow a raspberry.

Speaker 29 So the behaviors that they learn are all taught in very small steps. And these steps are just much like when we learn to ride a bike.
We don't jump on a 10-speed for the the first time.

Speaker 29 The same with the whales.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld was in need of a mature male orca after the sudden death of Kanduk a year earlier. Of the company's 13 remaining whales, 12 of them were female.

Speaker 1 So SeaWorld purchased Tilicum from SeaLand for a reported $1 million and moved him to the company's flagship park in Orlando. Don't worry, Tilicum.
You will primarily be used for breeding.

Speaker 1 That was SeaWorld's idea of a more modern, ethical approach. You're the largest orca orca in captivity after all.
A big show stopping splash is enough from you.

Speaker 1 Besides, SeaWorld was well aware of your history. But, tragically, the same couldn't be said for everyone.

Speaker 1 On Tuesday, July 6, 1999, SeaWorld's staff arrived in the morning to find a nude, male body draped over Tillicum's back. The skin was discolored and bruised.
Rigor mortis had set in.

Speaker 1 It took a while for emergency responders to retrieve the corpse from the whale, and when they finally did, Tillicum was reportedly, quote, pissed.

Speaker 1 It seemed as if Tillicum had enjoyed entertaining himself with the human body, as evidenced by the little pieces of human flesh collected from the bottom of the pool.

Speaker 1 Tillicum had also nibbled open the victim's scrotum, removed his left testicle, and then spit it out, reportedly. We can't know for sure because there was no security footage of the incident.

Speaker 1 Initially, the Orange County Sheriff's Office was stumped.

Speaker 1 While we'll probably never know the exact cause of death, a spokesperson said, he may have been a victim of what a whale would call horseplay, just playing around.

Speaker 1 The horseplay victim was identified as 27-year-old Daniel Dukes. They found his ID in a neat pile of clothes next to the pool, along with a marijuana-filled cigarette.

Speaker 1 Those that knew him say Daniel was a free spirit, the drifter type. He lived at a hard Krishna temple in Miami for a while.
He was big on nature and environmentalism.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld's staff remembered seeing Daniel Dukes the day before. He, quote, looked dirty and had a foul odor about him.

Speaker 1 He was muttering to himself all crazy like and was quote, wandering around the front gate plaza, glaring suspiciously at young girls.

Speaker 1 Daniel must have hidden somewhere until the park closed. Then he hopped a three-foot plexiglass barrier and swam with tilicum in the dined with a shamu pool.

Speaker 1 The cold water must have given Daniel hypothermia and that he drowned accidentally, SeaWorld suggested, despite his severely mutilated body.

Speaker 1 The amusement park was quick to point out Dukes' numerous arrests. It was all minor stuff, marijuana possession, petty theft, trespassing.

Speaker 1 In fact, Daniel Dukes spent some time in jail just days before his death for stealing a three musketeers candy bar from a convenience store, like some kind of out-of-control career criminal.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld made an effort to paint the victim as a mentally ill, drug-abusing vagrant. And as typical of those cases, the media coverage was sparse.
Mr.

Speaker 1 Dukes had been trespassing, SeaWorld's executive vice president told the New York Times.

Speaker 1 Not only was that incredibly bad judgment to try to take a dip with a killer whale, but remember, this water is 50 degrees ice-cold water.

Speaker 1 In other words, it was a freak accident, and Daniel Dukes only had himself to blame.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld returned to business as usual in short order, including Tillicum, who would claim his third victim about 10 years later.

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Speaker 32 the trainers who work with the killer whales are in amazing physical shape, and some of them have a lot of experience competing in marathons and triathlons.

Speaker 32 And I want to introduce you to one of those very special trainers this morning. This is Don Branch Show.

Speaker 32 Don is the senior trainer here at Shamu Stadium and I have the honor, Don, and I mean this so sincerely, of watching you perform yesterday. You're amazing.

Speaker 33 Thank you. You really are.
You're not only a wonderful showman, but you are so physically fit.

Speaker 32 It's a tough job, isn't it?

Speaker 1 Don Brancho had known she wanted to be a SeaWorld trainer since she was nine years old. A family vacation to the Orlando Park ignited the passion.

Speaker 1 Don started working for the company in 1994 after graduating with degrees in animal behavior and psychology from the University of South Carolina. Don Brancho was a friend to every living creature.

Speaker 34 Gosh, do I love coming out here every day and having the audience just love what we're doing with the animals?

Speaker 34 How do I make this animal as beautiful as they are and have people walk away loving this animal and they're touched and they're moved and I feel like I made a difference to them.

Speaker 1 15 years later, Don Brancho had become the literal poster girl of SeaWorld. She was featured on billboards throughout Orlando, including the city's welcome sign at the airport.

Speaker 1 At 40 years old, Don was the company's most experienced trainer.

Speaker 1 She had worked with every animal at the park, including the now 23-foot-long, 12,500-pound telecom, who Don was scheduled to interact with on February 24th, 2010.

Speaker 1 The Dine with Shamu Show was a short session that featured a trainer leading a whale through a series of tricks while park guests enjoyed lunch in a restaurant setting.

Speaker 1 By all accounts, the show itself progressed swimmingly. Tillicum obeyed Don's every command and received his rewards, frozen fish from a bucket, and soon a customary post-show rub down.

Speaker 1 The guests cleared out around 1:30 p.m. after the show's completion.
Don Brancho called Telecom over to the slideout, a shallow platform in the pool where she was positioned to reach him better.

Speaker 1 Don laid down on the slide-out and started rubbing Tilly. At approximately 1:38 p.m., he pulled pulled her into the water.

Speaker 1 What I observed was

Speaker 1 maybe a current of water, a ripple of water, blow her hair into his mouth.

Speaker 13 All of a sudden, I saw her pulling on her hair to try to pull out.

Speaker 1 There is conflicting witness testimony. Some saw Tillicum deliberately pull the trainer into the pool by her left arm and shoulder.

Speaker 1 Others saw the whale become infatuated with Don's long ponytail, which drifted in front of his mouth. Don was growing out her hair to donate to cancer patients.

Speaker 1 With Don Brancho in his mouth, Tillicum maneuvered around the pole erratically. Witnesses say Don broke free in a brief moment of fortune and swam frantically for the near surface.

Speaker 1 And here comes the whale. And here comes the whale.

Speaker 37 And at first, it looked like he was going to go underneath her and give her a footlift, you know, like you see them do during the Believe Show.

Speaker 37 And then he lifted his snow up and impacted her squarely in the chest. And she went, I mean,

Speaker 37 you can't can't go flying through the water, but it was substantial.

Speaker 1 Tillicum rammed his rostrum directly into Don Brancho's chest and then thatched her with his jaws. He thrashed around so violently that Don's shoes flew off her feet.

Speaker 1 Say the remaining guests, some of which were watching the attack unfold from SeaWorld's underwater observation area.

Speaker 36 French Tony for your rescue.

Speaker 37 6600 Sea Harbor Drive.

Speaker 36 Okay.

Speaker 36 SeaWorld, my fortune. Okay, and where is the patient located inside? They are at Shamu Stadium.

Speaker 22 We actually have a trainer in the water with one of our whales. The whale that they're not supposed to be in the water with.

Speaker 21 Okay.

Speaker 22 So we don't know what's going on.

Speaker 12 We were just told to call and have people here on standby when they get the person out.

Speaker 36 Okay, and do you know if, so you don't know if the person was injured or if they're having a medical problem?

Speaker 22 No idea.

Speaker 36 Okay, very well.

Speaker 22 I don't even think they're out of the water yet. They're still in there with the whale, so.

Speaker 22 Okay, but someone is on scene and they are getting them out of the water now. There are people working on it, yes.

Speaker 36 About two or three dozen people over there right now.

Speaker 1 Tillicum grew more agitated as trainers tried to distract him with food and nets. They coaxed him into three different pools, but he wouldn't let go of Don, who was utterly motionless by this point.

Speaker 1 Finally, after 45 minutes, the SeaWorld staff were able to corner Tillicum in the medical pool and raise the false bottom.

Speaker 1 Witnesses say the rescue workers had to pry open the whale's mouth twice, one to release Don Brancho from the grips of his teeth, and a second time to retrieve her detached left arm.

Speaker 1 This is witness testimony from Laura Sorovic, a SeaWorld employee and Don Brancho's best friend.

Speaker 35 Tillicum was in there, and he knows me. I've worked with this whale for since he's been here.

Speaker 34 So I decided at that point they were lifting, and as the floor lifted, lifted, I stepped into onto the platform and I looked at him.

Speaker 39 He looked at me right in his eyes and he had her arm. He had her arm and he was shaking back and forth and I just said, it's all right baby.
Settle down.

Speaker 39 And I went and I got her and I just cradled her torso and I said, it's all right. Let go.
Let go.

Speaker 1 Don Brancho had no pulse. The defibrillator had no effect.
Don's autopsy later revealed that she had jaw, rib, sternum, and vertebrae fractures.

Speaker 1 Additionally, her spinal cord was severed, and her entire scalp had been, quote, forcibly torn from the head. It was retrieved from the bottom of the pole later, ponytail still attached.

Speaker 1 The official cause of death would be blunt force trauma and drowning.

Speaker 1 First responders covered Don Brancho's body with a black cloth to protect her dignity from the local news station's eyes in the sky, which were circling overhead.

Speaker 1 Occasionally, Tillicum would swim over to the edge of the pool and take a peek for himself.

Speaker 23 Tragedy at SeaWorld.

Speaker 40 It happened without warning. A killer whale grabbed a trainer who'd always dreamed of working with orcas and pulled her underwater.

Speaker 10 Star of the show, the center of all things SeaWorld today offered a grisly reminder why the name Killer is right in its title.

Speaker 35 SeaWorld Orlando's biggest killer whale carried out the park's biggest tragedy today, drowning a trainer as horrified spectators looked on.

Speaker 20 Well, officially, the Orange County Sheriff's Office says this 40-year-old female employee of SeaWorld, a trainer with more than 20 years' experience, slipped and fell into a behind-the-scenes pool behind the Shamu Stadium show.

Speaker 22 We're told that the whale in that pool apparently grabbed her and pulled her underwater.

Speaker 20 It is believed that she drowned.

Speaker 25 But we know this: children saw this, waiting for a SeaWorld water show, waiting to see the majesty of the world's largest whale in captivity, a 13,000-pound killer whale.

Speaker 25 Instead, they got a first-hand look at the violent and deadly world of nature in its rawest form.

Speaker 25 Witnesses say Tillicum jumped out of the water, grabbed a female trainer around the waist, and started thrashing her so hard that at one point her shoe flew off.

Speaker 25 A SeaWorld spokesman says the female trainer slipped and fell into the water and then was attacked by the whale. Either way, the audience was quickly rushed out of the park.

Speaker 25 The park immediately closed. By the time paramedics reached the trainer, she was dead.

Speaker 13 I don't know. What apparently happens, we had a female trainer

Speaker 1 back in the whale holding area.

Speaker 11 She apparently slipped or fell into the tank and was fatally injured by one of the whales.

Speaker 1 Dan Brown, the vice president and general manager of SeaWorld Orlando, delivered a statement that evening.

Speaker 42 It's with great sadness that I report that one of our most experienced animal trainers drowned in an incident with one of our killer whales this afternoon.

Speaker 42 We've initiated an investigation to determine to the extent extent possible what occurred. There are no other details to share at this point but we will make our findings known in due course.

Speaker 42 I must emphasize this is an extraordinarily difficult time for the SeaWorld parks and our team members.

Speaker 42 Nothing is more important than the safety of our employees, guests, and the animals entrusted to our care.

Speaker 42 We have never in the history of our parks experienced an incident like this and all of our standard operating procedures will come under review as part of this investigation.

Speaker 42 We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the trainer and we'll do everything possible to assist them in this difficult time.

Speaker 1 The next day, February 26, 2010, SeaWorld CEO Jim Atchison announced that trainers would temporarily no longer join orcas in the water until they could reassess their processes and procedures.

Speaker 43 As you know, all direct interactions with these animals was suspended immediately after the incident on Wednesday in all three SeaWorld parks.

Speaker 43 This includes all show and most husbandry interactions and our dining programs.

Speaker 43 We will resume performances of our killer whale show Believe tomorrow at SeaWorld Parks in Orlando, San Diego, and San Antonio. But our trainers will not enter the water.

Speaker 1 Okay, well, what about Telecom?

Speaker 43 Let me be very clear about how we care for Tillicum. Tillicum is an important part of our overall team here.

Speaker 43 Our team at this facility, one of the largest marine life facilities in the world, is comprised of the whales and the trainers. Tillikum interacts with both.
Tilikum is not separated in any fashion.

Speaker 43 He is part of the whole social network of this facility, including the other killer whales and the trainers. He is never separated.

Speaker 1 After the Brancho attack, Tillicum became more isolated than ever. His caretakers were instructed to brush his teeth with a two-foot pole.

Speaker 1 Instead of massaging the whale with their hands, they sprayed him with a high-powered water hose from afar.

Speaker 1 Despite pleas from the American Family Association, a religious conservative group that issued a decree for Tillicum to be stoned to death in accordance with biblical law, SeaWorld made it very clear that the whale would not be punished and that they would not get rid of him.

Speaker 1 The company didn't outright say it, but Tillicum was too valuable to their operation. He had already fathered 13 calves and would have two more on the way just a few months after the incident.

Speaker 1 Tillicum would not, however, be allowed to participate in the performances, which resumed three days later.

Speaker 1 Fans lined up two hours early to see the first show, which was dedicated to the beloved Don Brancho. The trainers were given a standing ovation.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, in memory and appreciation, we would like to dedicate this moment to our friend and colleague, Don Brancho.

Speaker 1 Behind the scenes, the Brancho attack had triggered an investigation into SeaWorld by the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Speaker 1 Any workplace where an employee is scalped alive, crushed, and drowned can usually expect a visit.

Speaker 1 OSHA discovered that SeaWorld had a long history of incidents involving its killer Wills, many of which were undocumented.

Speaker 1 Even the company's first orca, Shamu, whose mother was shot and killed with a harpoon right in front of her when captured, was involved in a near-tragic incident.

Speaker 1 In 1971, a SeaWorld secretary named Annette Eckis was chosen to ride on the back of Shamu for a publicity event.

Speaker 1 Shamu's jaws had to be pried apart to allow the bloody and battered woman to reach safety. 1987 was the worst though.
14 SeaWorld trainers at SeaWorld San Diego were injured on the job in four months.

Speaker 1 One of them was 26-year-old John Sillick.

Speaker 1 As part of a show, John was riding the back of Corky when another whale named Orky leaped out of the water and landed on John, sandwiching him between the six-ton animals in front of a horrified-capacity crowd.

Speaker 1 John Sillick survived with broken ribs, a broken pelvis, a shattered femur, and 12 broken vertebrae. It was only his second year on the job.
SeaWorld blamed the newbie trainer for making an error.

Speaker 1 It was an accident, the company claimed, not an act of aggression.

Speaker 1 That same year, a 6,000-pound orca named Candu landed on top of a trainer named Joanne Weber, fracturing her neck while pushing her to the bottom of a 40-foot-deep pool.

Speaker 1 Joanne's injuries were made worse when SeaWorld demanded she remove her wetsuit before making her walk to the ambulance. They didn't want the paramedics to damage the company's property.

Speaker 1 Several people, including John Sillick and Joanne Webber, sued SeaWorld that year for negligence and fraud for making them work with, quote, ferocious and dangerous animals.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld settled all of those lawsuits out of court with a gag order. As a result, none of the trainers can talk about it publicly.

Speaker 1 Side note, here's what happened to Candu, the whale that landed on Joanne.

Speaker 1 Two years later, Candu interrupted a show where her born-in-captivity daughter, Orchid, performed with Corky, a mature female.

Speaker 1 Kandu apparently did not appreciate how close Corky was becoming with Orchid, so she attacked Corky. ramming her at full speed with an open mouth.

Speaker 1 The strike resulted in Kandu breaking her own jaw, which severed a major artery in her nasal passage, causing a 10-foot geyser of blood to spray from Candu's blowhole as she bled to death over the next 45 minutes in front of horrified spectators.

Speaker 1 It's common behavior, the SeaWorld veterinarian told the LA Times. The altercation was initiated by Candu.
She was asserting her dominance.

Speaker 1 Orcas are very protective of their offspring. It's been suggested that this maternal bond is what led to the 2006 attack on SeaWorld San Diego trainer Ken Peters.

Speaker 44 The video from 2006 is chilling. Ken Peters, an experienced trainer, is swimming with a 5,000-pound female named Kasatka, an animal he's worked with for years.

Speaker 44 With no apparent warning, the killer whale grabs his feet and pulls him underwater for close to a minute.

Speaker 44 Then it brings him to the surface where the trainer pets the whale, tries to calm it, only to be yanked down again.

Speaker 1 During the performance, Kasatka's calf reportedly called for its mother from a nearby pool. Being helpless to respond, Kasaka lashed out at those who were keeping them separated.

Speaker 1 Ken Peters survived with a broken foot. Kasaka performed the next day.

Speaker 45 There are times like this when they are killer whales, and she did choose to

Speaker 45 demonstrate her feelings in a way that obviously was unfortunate.

Speaker 14 And we are unfortunate that our guests did have to see this and

Speaker 45 we obviously do not want this.

Speaker 1 California's state OSHA investigated the Ken Peters event and issued an 18-page report in 2007 that warned, the contributing factors to the accident, in the simplest of terms, is that swimming with captive orcas is inherently dangerous.

Speaker 1 And if someone hasn't been killed already, it is only a matter of time before it does happen.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld successfully challenged the report. It was withdrawn, revised, and reissued 10 pages shorter.
The most damaging information was removed, including the dire warning.

Speaker 1 It's been rumored that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger personally intervened.

Speaker 1 The governator was a well-known friend and political ally of August Bush IV of Anheuser-Busch, the family company that purchased SeaWorld in 1989.

Speaker 28 It's unbelievable that a commercial corporation was able to influence what should have been an objective investigation by an agency whose sole function is to protect worker safety.

Speaker 1 That's Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist who worked for the Humane Society of the United States. She argued that withdrawing the original 2007 OSHA report led to avoidable deaths.

Speaker 1 Not only Don Brancho, but also Alexis Martinez, who two months earlier was battered to death at Laurel Parque in the Canary Islands by a SeaWorld-owned orca named Keto.

Speaker 1 Alexis was bleeding from every orifice. Laurel Parquet reported no signs of violence.
It was an unwritten rule never to blame the whales. Why?

Speaker 1 Money, money, money, a former SeaWorld trainer named John Jedd told the San Diego Tribune. SeaWorld is the new Wringling Brothers Circus, he said.

Speaker 1 Only now the draw is pretty girls in tight wetsuits interacting with large carnivores in environments that are in no way related to their natural history, except maybe the salt water.

Speaker 1 Other former SeaWorld trainers came forward with similar sentiments. The same thing so many scientists, academics, veterinarians, environmentalists, and activists were saying.

Speaker 1 Orcas, killer whales, are too large, too smart, too conscious, and too family-oriented to be kept in captivity. They're truly remarkable animals.
Orcas are the largest member of the dolphin family.

Speaker 1 They live in highly complex and highly social matriarchal societies. each with its own culture and communication.

Speaker 1 Male orcas stay with their mothers for their entire lives, and separation is not an insignificant issue. This is Rick O'Barry, former trainer of Flipper the Dolphin, turned animal rights activist.

Speaker 41 What a violation of nature and what hypocrisy to say we're capturing these dolphins and bringing them to the Miami Sea Aquarium or SeaWorld or some other part

Speaker 14 so that we can teach you respect for nature.

Speaker 1 Respect for nature doesn't look like this. Captive orcas develop cataracts and eye eye damage from the hot suns in Florida, California, and Texas.

Speaker 1 They're fed fish filled with antibiotics to treat the constant infections resulting from impaired immunity. They become less vocal because these signals bouncing off the tank's walls are maddening.

Speaker 1 And the wild orcas swim up to 100 miles a day. In captivity, they bang their heads against the wall for fun.

Speaker 1 It's theorized that a lack of physical activity is what leads to the collapse of the dorsal fin, seen in 100% of captive males. And the wild, dorsal fin collapse is seen in less than 1%.

Speaker 1 And part of that 1% includes two orcas exposed to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, both of which died within two years.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld disputes these numbers, but male orcas can live as long as 60 years in the wild, and captivity males rarely reach 30. Wild females can live to be 90 years old.

Speaker 1 Captive females typically die before the age of 50.

Speaker 1 One of the reasons orcas live so long in the wild is because they have no natural predators. They do not kill each other, and they do not kill humans.

Speaker 1 There's only one documented orca attack on humans in the wild. A surfer in a wetsuit mistaken for a seal in 1972.

Speaker 1 So where's all of this uncharacteristic aggression coming from? Gee, I wonder.

Speaker 1 And so any tank is too small.

Speaker 12 I would like...

Speaker 28 SeaWorld to consider retiring him to an open ocean sea pen

Speaker 28 and seeing whether they can lessen some of the stress he suffers from.

Speaker 12 Again, I think they're just fooling themselves if they argue, oh, there's nothing unusual about this or Tillicum is just fine with this situation.

Speaker 38 He's clearly not just fine with this situation.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld always favored the testimony that Tillicum pulled Don Brancho into the pool by her hair, but somehow made the whale's actions look more benign and less unpredictably violent.

Speaker 1 Otherwise, the company might have to acknowledge that there was something seriously wrong with its whales. But the fact is the company already knew Tillicum was dangerous.

Speaker 1 The Kelty Byrne incident, the Daniel Dukes incident. Tillikum was the only whale of 26 that trainers were forbidden to swim with.

Speaker 1 Linda Simmons, SeaWorld's former safety chief, divulged this information and more after she says the company fired her for cooperating with OSHA investigators.

Speaker 47 The Tilly Talk is an orientation for anyone coming into the stadium to work with the whales, whether you've been at SeaWorld and other positions or you're brand new to SeaWorld.

Speaker 47 And what they do is they talk to you about going in the water with Tilly, that if you get in the water with Tilly, you will come out a corpse, letting them know how dangerous an animal he is.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld argued that its orcas, such as Tillicum, were not dangerous and did not live solitary lives. They receive world-class health care.

Speaker 1 They're free from the pollution and dwindling food supplies of their natural environment, and they're providing an educational service to the public.

Speaker 1 And their managers, investors, other aquarium owners, some former and current trainers, and politicians whose constituents benefit from their parks agreed with them.

Speaker 1 On August 23, 2010, the U.S.

Speaker 1 Labor Department's OSHA cited SeaWorld for three safety violations, a serious violation for a missing handrail on a staircase leading up to a bridge on one of the stages, an other than serious violation for weather-exposed electrical electrical outlets, and a willful violation for exposing its employees to danger by having them interact with killer whales.

Speaker 1 OSHA's probe revealed that, quote, SeaWorld trainers had an extensive history of unexpected and potentially dangerous incidents involving killer whales at its various facilities.

Speaker 1 Despite this record, management failed to make meaningful changes to improve the safety of the work environment for its employees.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld was fined a measly $75,000 for the three infractions, but their trainers were effectively banned from working with the whales in the water. It was a huge blow.
Again, this is Naomi Rose.

Speaker 1 They are not machines.

Speaker 38 They are not domesticated animals that SeaWorld can control. They have this idea that they can control these animals, and they can't.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld called OSHA's findings unfounded and would spend the next several years fighting it in court.

Speaker 1 A month after the ruling, in October 2010, Kalina, aka Baby Shamu, died unexpectedly at SeaWorld, Orlando. Kalina was the first orca born in captivity back in 1985.

Speaker 1 She was a little troublemaker when she was younger, so much so that SeaWorld abruptly transferred baby Shamu out of Florida to SeaWorld, Ohio, which has since closed.

Speaker 1 Kalina's mother, Katina, reportedly remained immobile in the corner of the pool from which her child disappeared. She wailed in grief throughout the night.

Speaker 48 This is the second whale death here at SeaWorld in a year that's been marked by tragedy.

Speaker 48 This morning, SeaWorld is confirming that Kalina, a 25-year-old killer whale, died unexpectedly after a sudden illness on Monday.

Speaker 1 A few months earlier, Taima, a 20-year-old orca, died giving birth to a still-birthed calf in Orlando.

Speaker 19 SeaWorld continues to spend millions of dollars on advertising what they're doing for the Gulf Coast.

Speaker 19 But like BP, their image has also become tarnished by these recent tragedies of the death of a trainer and now the death of a baby killer whale and the mother.

Speaker 1 That's Brian Wilson of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA, who would later file a lawsuit asking the court to rule that SeaWorld's orcas were held in illegal involuntary servitude in violation of the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Speaker 1 U.S. District Judge Jeffrey T.
Miller ruled against PETA because slavery and involuntary servitude are uniquely human activities. Lucky us.

Speaker 1 Despite the victory, the lawsuit was more bad publicity for SeaWorld. It was an avalanche of terrible optics.
How could it get any worse?

Speaker 35 Tonight at 11.

Speaker 41 Accusations of child rape at SeaWorld. Good evening.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry I asked. Let's stick with the whales.

Speaker 48 Right now what we're doing is we're preparing the whales to begin the desensitization process and to start from the beginning.

Speaker 48 Even though many of these whales have a vast amount of experience, we're going to bring kind of everybody back to the beginning.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld was getting back to the basics. All of its orcas training would be reinforced and re-evaluated.
By March 2011, Ivan Tillicum was performing again, alongside his grandson.

Speaker 1 In May 2012, Judge Ken S. Welsh sided with OSHA when SeaWorld appealed the citations that was keeping its trainers out of the water.

Speaker 1 Welsh stated, it is implausible and difficult to reconcile claims made by SeaWorld that the company was unaware that its animals posed the danger.

Speaker 1 However, Judge Welsh did agree that the company had emphasized trainer safety, even if its procedures were largely ineffective.

Speaker 1 As a result, he downgraded the severity of the citations, and SeaWorld's total fine was reduced to $12,000.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld would continue the fight to overturn even that ruling because its trainers still could not return to water work.

Speaker 1 The company argued that having the trainers in the water with the whales was fundamental to its business. One year later, SeaWorld's business would be front page news.

Speaker 49 This episode is brought to you by Netflix. Jay Kelly, the new film from Academy Award nominee Noah Baumbach.

Speaker 49 George Clooney stars as an actor confronting his past and present on a journey of self-discovery, alongside Adam Sandler as his devoted manager.

Speaker 49 Critics are calling it a declaration of love to the chaotic art of filmmaking, with the Wall Street Journal praising it as a transcendent comedy drama.

Speaker 49 Jay Kelly is now playing in select theaters and on Netflix December 5th.

Speaker 10 There's been a lot of lies circulating about how we take care of our animals here at SeaWorld.

Speaker 10 The truth is, SeaWorld is recognized as a world leader in animal care, but that's not what the groups behind the film Blackfish or PETA wants to make you believe.

Speaker 10 The truth is, at SeaWorld, we've dedicated our lives to taking care of these amazing animals. We know you love these whales, and we love them too.

Speaker 1 Blackfish premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Speaker 1 It's a documentary directed by Gabriella Calperthoy that explores the link between Telecom's attack on Don Brancho and the consequences of keeping orcas in captivity.

Speaker 1 The film includes interviews with former trainers, scientists, and witnesses. It followed on the heels of an equally devastating expose by David Kirby titled Death at SeaWorld, published in 2012.

Speaker 1 which followed Tim Zimmerman's 2010 long-form article in Outside magazine called The Killer in the Pole.

Speaker 1 The concern for captive killer wells was reaching the mainstream consciousness. Magnolia Films picked up Blackfish for broader distribution.

Speaker 1 So did CNN, who aired the film in its entirety on primetime. The public was horrified and demanded change.

Speaker 1 Legislation to ban orca shows and breeding garnered momentum in New York, California, and at the federal level.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld went into damage control mode and spent half a million dollars on political lobbying in the first half of 2014. SeaWorld SeaWorld called Blackfish misinformed, sensational propaganda.

Speaker 1 The company released a statement: quote, Blackfish is inaccurate and misleading, and regrettably, exploits a tragedy.

Speaker 1 The film paints a distorted picture that withholds key facts about SeaWorld, that SeaWorld rescues, rehabilitates, and returns to the wild hundreds of wild animals every year, and that SeaWorld commits millions of dollars annually to conservation and scientific research.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld also purchased full-page newspaper ads in the largest markets that addressed some of the film's claims. For example, the letter states, SeaWorld does not capture killer whales in the wild.

Speaker 1 We do not separate killer whale moms and calves. SeaWorld's killer whales' lifespans are equivalent with those in the wild.

Speaker 1 Even if those things were true, and most scientists agree that they are not, the damage from Blackfish was already taking place. It was too late.
The SeaWorld trainer Barbie was discontinued.

Speaker 1 Pixar changed the ending to its script for Finding Dory, which originally called for the characters to be sent to a SeaWorld-like aquatic park to live happily ever after.

Speaker 1 Also, eight of ten musical acts pulled out of SeaWorld's upcoming concert series, Willie Nelson, The Bare Naked Ladies, Ario's Speedwagon, all said thanks but no tanks to the amusement park.

Speaker 1 This particular slight rubbed some people at SeaWorld headquarters the wrong way.

Speaker 1 Fred Jacobs, the company's spokesperson, wrote in an email to a co-worker in 2013, God, we look like idiots. This whole fucking thing pisses me off.

Speaker 1 What relentless amateurism we've shown in booking these fucking people and managing the whole fucking chocolate mess.

Speaker 1 An email from later that year showed just how desperate SeaWorld was getting.

Speaker 1 In December 2013, the Orlando Business Journal posted a poll on its website asking, quote, Has CNN's Blackfish documentary changed your perception of SeaWorld?

Speaker 1 Surprisingly, 99% of the vote sided with the amusement park. However, it was soon discovered that 55% of the votes had come from a single SeaWorld-owned IP address.

Speaker 1 Marketing director Nick Galochik had discovered an exploit in the web poll that would allow a visitor to vote multiple times. He shared it with his colleagues.
The poll is still running.

Speaker 1 Let's keep flooding it, he wrote in an email sent on Christmas Eve. Happy holidays and keep voting.
Ho ho vote. It's just embarrassing.
Attendance was down. Revenues were down.
The brand was toxic.

Speaker 1 But in public, SeaWorld put on a positive face.

Speaker 1 As much as we're asked that, we can see no noticeable impact on our business, CEO Jim Atchinson told analysts on a conference call when asked if Blackfish had affected the company's bottom line.

Speaker 1 The movie, in some ways, has actually made perhaps more interest in marine mammal parks and actually even about us, so we've seen that reflected through certain visitor profiles and certain guest comments and things we get.

Speaker 1 Jim Atchinson was lying, and he knew it. SeaWorld had suffered a $15.9 million loss because of the movie, which they blamed on high ticket prices and bad weather.

Speaker 1 But instead of sharing this insight with investors, Achinson quietly sold his own stock to keep the company afloat.

Speaker 1 In August 2014, SeaWorld finally came clean and admitted that Blackfish had hurt its revenue. The company's stock price fell 33%.

Speaker 1 The potential for business-altering legislation spooked new investors.

Speaker 1 Meanwhile, old investors were filing a class action lawsuit against SeaWorld for misleading them about the blackfish effect on revenue. SeaWorld would later settle that lawsuit for $65 million.

Speaker 9 Now, according to filings with the U.S.

Speaker 8 Securities and Exchange Commission, SeaWorld will pay $65 million to settle the class action lawsuit.

Speaker 21 Now, under the agreement, SeaWorld admits no wrongdoing.

Speaker 1 CEO Jim Atchinson resigned in December 2014.

Speaker 1 He later paid $5 million to settle federal charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission for his role in hiding the negative impact of Blackfish on the company.

Speaker 1 Acheson was replaced by Joel Manby, who previously managed Dollywood. Manby immediately instituted layoffs, mainly in SeaWorld's marketing department.

Speaker 1 His goal was to repair the company's brand aggressively. SeaWorld launched a new website called AskSeaWorld.com to help dispel some of the misinformation popularized by the movies and books.

Speaker 1 the company also launched a social media Q ⁇ A, which backfired spectacularly. Joel Manby also ordered some SeaWorld workers to work undercover and infiltrate PETA.

Speaker 1 He later claimed it was to find out what the animal activists were planning so SeaWorld could protect its employees and customers accordingly.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld also set its targets on a former trainer named John Hargrove. John had appeared in Blackfish and was preparing to release his own book.

Speaker 1 In response, an organization related to SeaWorld built a website called realjohnhardgrove.com, where it published a five-year-old video of the intoxicated former trainer using racial slurs while on the phone.

Speaker 23 They did a really good job of doctoring the footage to sell their agenda.

Speaker 34 You're lying about how we care about these animals.

Speaker 38 You're lying about the benefits of having these animals in a zoo and aquarium.

Speaker 9 There's no evil empire.

Speaker 17 I am not an evil Darth Vader minion, you know.

Speaker 17 I have a heart too, and I would not have worked the career that I did and come to work every day that I did if I felt that these animals were ever treated like anything other than royalty.

Speaker 34 Blackfish really hit me because I believe wholeheartedly in what I do.

Speaker 33 I believe that what I do makes a difference in the animals' lives and in people's lives.

Speaker 35 The one thing that I want people to know after watching the movie is that it's not true.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld was fighting back. It even announced that it was building new, larger tanks for the orcas at every one of its parks.
These improvements had little effect. Attendance continued to fall.

Speaker 1 By August 2015, SeaWorld had experienced an 84% reduction in profit from previous years. The company ramped up its public relations campaign even more.

Speaker 35 There's some facts about SeaWorld we'd like you to know.

Speaker 30 We don't collect killer whales from the wild and haven't for 35 years.

Speaker 35 With the highest standard of animal care in the world, our whales are healthy.

Speaker 30 They're thriving.

Speaker 35 It wouldn't work here if they weren't.

Speaker 30 And government research shows they live just as long as whales in the wild.

Speaker 21 Our male killer whales do have dorsal fins that are bent. The dorsal fin is not an indicator of the animal's overall health.

Speaker 21 The truth of the matter is, is that all toothed whales and dolphins rake each other. This is how these animals interact with each other.

Speaker 1 Again, SeaWorld's defense was falling on deaf ears.

Speaker 1 So, in November 2015, the company finally acknowledged which way the wind was blowing and announced that its killer well shows would be phased out permanently.

Speaker 1 We are listening to our guests, CEO Joel Manby announced. We are evolving as a company.
We are always changing.

Speaker 1 However, Manby denied that the change resulted from pressure from environmentalists. We didn't do it from activists, he said.
Frankly, The activists will not be pleased with anything we do.

Speaker 1 He was right. PETA issued a statement in response to the news, quote, quote:

Speaker 1 An end to SeaWorld's tawdry circus-style shows is inevitable and necessary, but it's captivity that denies these far-ranging orcas everything that is natural and important to them.

Speaker 1 This move is like no longer whipping lions in a circus act, but keeping them locked inside cages for life, or no longer beating dogs but never letting them out of crates.

Speaker 1 A few months later, SeaWorld made another surprise announcement.

Speaker 51 Some say, free the whales. For For them, nothing else is acceptable.
But nothing could be worse for the whales.

Speaker 51 Most of the orcas at SeaWorld were born here.

Speaker 21 Sending them into the wild wouldn't be noble.

Speaker 51 It could be fatal.

Speaker 51 When they freed Keiko, the killer whale of movie fame, the effort was a failure and he perished.

Speaker 51 But we also understand that times have changed. Today, people are concerned about the world's largest animals like never before.

Speaker 21 So, we too must change.

Speaker 51 That's why the orcas in our care will be the last generation at SeaWorld.

Speaker 21 There will be no more breeding.

Speaker 51 We're also phasing out orca theatrical shows.

Speaker 51 They'll continue to receive the highest standard of care available anywhere.

Speaker 51 And guests can come to see them simply being their majestic selves, inspiring the next generation of people to love them as you do.

Speaker 1 In March 2016, SeaWorld pledged to end its orca breeding program.

Speaker 1 Again, CEO Joel Mamby said the decision was influenced by society's shifting attitude towards keeping killer wells in captivity, though he elected to use some softer language.

Speaker 9 It's about where society is shifting.

Speaker 9 I have seen clearly that society is changing their attitude about these unbelievable, majestic animals being in human care.

Speaker 1 This meant that SeaWorld's 29 orcas would remain in captivity and on display until the day they died.

Speaker 1 Activists noted that the company was still breeding other animals and that the announcement's timing was a bit suspect considering the condition of their primary stud.

Speaker 8 Lauren, the star of SeaWorld's Killer Whale Show is very sick. SeaWorld says Tillicum, its notorious 12,000-pound killer whale, is not doing very well.

Speaker 8 Until recently, Tillicum performed at Shamu Stadium, even after the death of trainer Don Brancho in 2010.

Speaker 20 I wish I could say

Speaker 7 I was tremendously optimistic about

Speaker 1 Tillicum

Speaker 7 and his future.

Speaker 7 But

Speaker 20 he has

Speaker 20 a disease which

Speaker 7 is chronic and progressive and

Speaker 7 at some point might

Speaker 7 cause his death.

Speaker 1 Tillikum died on January 6, 2017. His cause of death is listed as a bacterial infection.
Throughout his life, Tilicum fathered 21 calves. At the time of his death, only nine of them remained alive.

Speaker 1 The last killer whale born in captivity at SeaWorld occurred a few months after Tillicum's death on April 19th, 2017 in San Antonio. That baby orca's name was Chiara.
She died 96 days later.

Speaker 50 SeaWorld has yet to confirm the cause of death, but said in a statement, they do not believe it was the result of being held in captivity.

Speaker 1 Curiously, even though SeaWorld pledged to stop breeding orcas back in 2016, the company spent 2018 trying to block federal legislation that wouldn't even give them the option.

Speaker 8 Also new this morning, SeaWorld is asking for your help.

Speaker 52 It's trying to stop legislation that would eventually phase out killer whales at its theme parks, including here in Orlando.

Speaker 52 A California lawmaker has filed a bill in Congress that would not only ban orcas from being captured, but it would also stop companies like SeaWorld from breeding the whales in captivity.

Speaker 1 More challenges lay ahead. SeaWorld survived the COVID-19 pandemic by furloughing 95% of its staff without a paycheck or health benefits.

Speaker 1 After raising more than $227 million through a private offering in March 2020, the company company faced backlash when it sought an emergency loan from the federal government worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars more, despite having only paid less than $8 million in total income taxes in the previous 10 years.

Speaker 1 According to the Orlando Sentinel, SeaWorld had amassed more than $556 million worth of tax credits when Anheuser-Busch sold it to the Blackstone Group in 2009. That makes them smart.

Speaker 10 In the third quarter, we generated among our highest revenue and net income ever reported.

Speaker 46 The earnings report showed huge gains in attendance and revenue from 2020 figures.

Speaker 1 2021 and beyond has been encouraging for SeaWorld as the company has pivoted more towards thrill rides and educational shows rather than circus acts and breeding.

Speaker 1 They partnered with a company in Abu Dhabi to open the world's largest aquarium, which is set to open in 2023.

Speaker 1 SeaWorld Abu Dhabi will be totally orca-free.

Speaker 1 However, worldwide, there are still 55 orcas in captivity.

Speaker 27 It's heartbreaking video.

Speaker 46 A killer whale seen banging its head against a tank.

Speaker 46 Kiska, a 45-year-old orca, lives in total isolation at Marineland Park in Niagara Falls, Canada.

Speaker 5 Experts who've reviewed Kiska's conditions have said that she's probably the loneliest orca in the world because she has no companionship whatsoever.

Speaker 1 Canada's last captive orca, Kiska, died from a bacterial infection on March 11th, 2023. Kiska was 47 years old.
She was captured in Iceland in 1979 alongside Keiko.

Speaker 1 Kiska spent more than 40 of those years in a tank by herself.

Speaker 1 Rest in paradise.

Speaker 1 54 orcas in captivity and counting.

Speaker 1 Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with original music by Trevor Howard, aka DeFormer, aka Baby Shamu.

Speaker 1 For more information about Swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok at Swindled Podcast. Or you can send us a postcard at P.O.

Speaker 1 Box6044, Austin, Texas, 78762. But please, no packages.
We do not trust you.

Speaker 1 Swindled is a completely independent production, which means no network, no investors, no bosses, no shadowy moneymen, no captive orcas, not a single one. And we plan to keep it that way.

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Speaker 53 Hi, my name is Emma from London, UK. My name is Leah from Vancouver, Canada.
Hi there. My name is Cyrus from New Orleans, and I am a natural science citizen and a valued listener.

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