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UncannyTarotSpread t1_jbpy4yi wrote

Some day we’ll look at these things with as much abhorrence as we do human zoos.

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Key_Team1192 t1_jbq0fir wrote

RIP this animal deserved so much more. What a sickening place. Wish it would shut down.

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kstinfo t1_jbq5yps wrote

final release

Newsweek, 8/18/22

Harrowing footage shows a lonely killer whale circling its tank and thrashing around, having outlived its friends and offspring.

Kiska, dubbed the "world's loneliest orca," circled the perimeter and splashed water over the walls of her isolated tank at MarineLand Park in Niagra Falls, Ontario, Canada. The footage was filmed in June 2022.

The orca is said to have been captured in Icelandic waters in 1979, and has been in captivity ever since. Kiska, who is approximately 45-years-old, has survived all of her tank mates and her five calves, activists say.

Researchers and activists believe her behavior is a result of her damaged mental and physical health and well-being from prolonged captivity. SWNS reached out to MarineLand Park for comment.

MarineLand has had 26 orcas pass through its tanks since it opened in 1962, with 20 of them dying there and the rest either traded or given away to other establishments.

Despite being well-known as social animals that thrive in groups, Kiska remains isolated from any other animal.

Former MarineLand employee-turned-activist Phil Demers, 44, who worked at the park for 12 years, said: "Kiska is MarineLand's last surviving orca. She was captured in 1979 in Icelandic waters and has been at MarineLand ever since.

"Her mental and physical health are deteriorating and as seen in the video, she repeatedly swims around her pool in the exact same way, even stopping briefly in some shallow water to shake erratically.

"Experts call it "zoochosis." Orcas are social animals and need to be with their families, or at the least, with others of their own species. For Kiska, her isolation is torture. Sadly, Kiska's fate is largely sealed at MarineLand as she is their property, and as no viable seaside sanctuaries exist, her future is heartbreakingly bleak."

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GrimsbyJanice t1_jbq6foe wrote

I hope they finally sell the park and get rid of all the animals that live in such terrible conditions.

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zuuzuu t1_jbqa67t wrote

Poor Kiska. I'm glad she's not suffering anymore.

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Dlinyenki t1_jbqeko2 wrote

This poor animal. 45 years of misery. This is horrific abuse and should never have been allowed to go on for so long. Dying young would have been the kindest fate for this orca, not decades of suffering and loneliness, having her calves die one after the other.

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Comar31 t1_jbqew8g wrote

Somebody should sue them so hard

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mexirusso t1_jbqkzkj wrote

better she has passed than stay in that trash can, marineworld

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PimpCforlife t1_jbqmen6 wrote

RIP poor whale. One of these days the savage human will learn animals are not here for our entertainment

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Zombie_Harambe t1_jbqnq5j wrote

Replying to Disastrous-Soup-5413 (#2,204,740)

Too old. Didn't have any parental nurturing and no survival instincts. Orcas have distinct language. They shun outsiders who can't speak theirs. She would have been alone and incapable.

It begs the question. Which is better. To be free but in danger. Or to be trapped but safe. Most would agree it be better to let the poor whale know some glimmer of freedom and happiness before dying in the wild. Better than more decades in a concrete cell.

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PatacusX t1_jbqrgkm wrote

Replying to dhork (#2,203,884)

I remember those commercials playing 100 times a day when I was a kid, and always begging my parents to bring me. I also thought it was a lot closer to me than it actually was too.

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Aazadan t1_jbqu1m2 wrote

Replying to Disastrous-Soup-5413 (#2,205,012)

Orca's eat a lot. Most animals in captivity take substantial effort to rehabilitate into the wild so that they don't just die. There's not really a good program to do that for Orca's. Seriously, it's orders of magnitude harder and more expensive to rehabilitate an animal.

Lets put this into a human anology. A kid who speaks only Japanese does something at age 15 and spends the next 20 years in the US in a Supermax with only Russian speaking cellmates. Then spends the following 20 years in solitary confinement with no language. Then is released onto a street in the US with no education, no assets, no job skills, and no support network. What do you think would happen? And that person would be much better off than the Orca.

It's unlikely the park could afford rehabilitation, even if they wanted to.

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dogwoodcat t1_jbqvqv6 wrote

Replying to Zombie_Harambe (#2,205,129)

If they can identify and locate the whale's pod quickly enough (typically within a few days of separation) there is a chance. Otherwise, it has to be a captive until someone figures out a better way.

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Dull-Bid-7051 t1_jbr4xwi wrote

It’s horrific how much violence humans inflict on other species out of our pure selfishness. This sentient animal lived in loneliness for 45 years because some people wanted to make money and keep ourselves entertained. 45 years of forced captivity in stead of a family and the whole ocean she could have travelled in. This really needs to stop. We really need to be better.

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Key_Team1192 t1_jbr7awo wrote

Hell you're right, they shut down a long time ago! Good!

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Key_Team1192 t1_jbr7j4v wrote

Poor Kiska was a casualty of those assholes, what a sad and lonely life for such a beautiful and social animal meant to live in a pod and family

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Quix_Optic t1_jbr7u8a wrote

Fuck, man. I think about her all the time. For her sake, I really hope there is something after death. This poor girl lived a life of absolute torture every single day of her life and people paid to see it.

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Quix_Optic t1_jbr8ki3 wrote

Replying to Zombie_Harambe (#2,204,759)

They could've at least given her a bigger goddamn tank, if anything.

I also read that an agency was thinking of creating a large actual ocean space and having it blocked off so she was still "captive" but could be in a natural habitat.

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gutsonmynuts t1_jbra5vo wrote

The only positive thing is that she no longer is suffering. Fuck Marineland and every hellhole like it.

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Relevant_Quantity_49 t1_jbrc6wc wrote

Replying to Send_me_snoot_pics (#2,205,779)

It's a little more complicated than that.

Orcas are socially complex animals, with each pod often having distinct behaviors and vocalizations. To use an anthropomorphic term, orca pods can be said to have distinct cultures. You can't introduce an animal from one pod into another and be assured it will seamlessly integrate; you have to find the animal's original pod.

The rehabilitators never found Keiko's original pod. Instead he was released near a random pod of wild orcas with hopes he would somehow integrate. It was the orca-equivalent of taking some WASP from the American suburbs, dropping them into rural Afghanistan, and hoping it would work out.

It didn't work, so Keiko remained solitary with respect to other orcas. It's no wonder he sought out human companionship; orcas are social animals, and he had years of positive reinforcement around people. Worse, John Q. Public sought him out, further strengthening that relationship.

If we wanted to try again, the best candidate (assuming she's healthy enough) would be Miami Seaquarium's Lolita. We know exactly which pod she came from and where they are--they're one of the best studied pods in the world--and when a vocalization study was conducted, IIRC, in the 90s, she still recognized their calls. Quite frankly, Miami Seaquarium could contribute more to orca behavioral research by supporting such a project than they ever have because it would give us a chance to see whether or not an animal separated from its pod for decades could successfully reintegrate. Would they accept her? Would they take care of her? Would they teach her to be a wild orca again? Answers to such questions would tell us a lot about their capabilities as animals.

(Source for information on Keiko: As an undergrad studying Animal Behavior, I attended a seminar on the effort and failure behind Keiko's rehabilitation, held by people involved in it.)

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scout_jem t1_jbre98f wrote

Replying to Malaix (#2,205,635)

According to pictures I’ve seen lately I don’t know if it’s even open to the public anymore. Basically just caring for these domesticated whales u til they die in captivity.

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Fresh_Regret_4333 t1_jbriiih wrote

Ohhh poor baby rest in heavens waters w your other whales 🐳 ❤️

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autopsis t1_jbrjpz9 wrote

Replying to Dull-Bid-7051 (#2,205,625)

The suffering humans inflict on every aspect of the world is sickening.

Right now, the US Defense Department is funding experiments on animals to determine if radio frequency waves could be the source of the mysterious ailment referred to as “Havana Syndrome.” Basically they are trying to make animals sick to see what happens.

“Symptoms have been described as severe headaches, temporary loss of hearing, vertigo and other problems similar to traumatic brain injury.”

Source

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lankypiano t1_jbrmftc wrote

A tragic story and a tragic end. May her wild soul know peace.

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duskrunner88 t1_jbrqro1 wrote

We went there from time to time when I was young, and I remember them having five or six orcas back then. It's so sad that she spent her last years alive alone in a filthy concrete tank. This place needs to be shut down.

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calm_chowder t1_jbrrxud wrote

Replying to scout_jem (#2,206,055)

2 minor pedantic notes: orcas are dolphinidea, a member of the dolphin family - not a member of what people generally are referring to when they say whales, which in common parlance refers to cetaceans with baleen (no true teeth). And they're not domesticated, which is a genetic level change over generations to make a species more amenable to humans. These animals are at best tame, which is aclimating an individual animal to humans.

On another note many people and even several countries class these animals as sentient beings and therefore most instances of their captivity is considered gross cruelty and even a crime. Even by the most lenient standards most of these animals in theme parks live in conditions which constitute torture. Many dolphinidea literally commit suicide (by willful self-induced suffocation) when forced to live in these conditions. Others go insane and may turn in to murders against their captors (such as Tilikum - who despite killing several people was clearly the victim, who very understandably snapped after years of psychological torture).

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[deleted] t1_jbrvl0x wrote

Asteroids tease me all the time…

0

EmotionalSuportPenis t1_jbs1hoh wrote

Replying to Quix_Optic (#2,205,805)

There are some wildlife education programs where an animal is temporarily captured from the wild, provided with highly nutritious food and extensive veterinary care, kept for a finite amount of time (usually a season or 1-2 years) to be an "animal ambassador" where people have a chance to see them, and then released back into the wild in a much stronger, healthier state than they would have otherwise been without human intervention. I think that's about the only ethical way to do something like this, but that kind of program is usually done with smallish animals like owls and rabbits, not a whole-ass pod of orcas.

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bleunt t1_jbs8lr6 wrote

Replying to BTBAM797 (#2,204,373)

Reading 1979 gave me so much fucking anxiety I want to cry. I was born in 1984, so she had been there all my life plus more.

Just to offer perspective, she was there before Jimmy Carter left office. They caught her the same year Alien and Apocalypse Now came out. Hell, it was only 10 years since we walked on the moon. And she died NOW. That's such an extended torture my mind can barely grasp it.

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farmsir t1_jbscr7i wrote

Ontario and Canadas government failed this poor animal and Canadians, and they should be held accountable.

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puddncake t1_jbsrs4h wrote

Swim in paradise Kiska, you are finally free again.

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goodness___gracious t1_jbsvvun wrote

Well, one of the cruelest detentions has ended. May we leave orcas in the oceans. I’m sorry for this beautiful creature who lived in hell for the majority of its life for entertainment for people stupid enough to still pay tickets to see her.

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Moses-the-Ryder t1_jbsxer3 wrote

If you’re coming to visit and spend an overpriced vacation in Niagara Falls, please don’t do it at Marineland

  • A local
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intjonsteroids t1_jbtdwnb wrote

I remember singing some useless petition to free Kiska. RIP Kiska 🥺

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ethervillage t1_jbtjs97 wrote

Such cruelty to a totally innocent life. Absolutely terrible

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keeperkairos t1_jbtkl5y wrote

I know it’s said that they can’t be released, but like, is that really worse than this fate? I’m not so sure.

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award07 t1_jbtp6qt wrote

I wanna live in the timeline where we don’t cage these majestical creatures.

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kylogram t1_jbtrm8r wrote

Replying to UncannyTarotSpread (#2,203,579)

Most zoos do actually great work and are responsible for a great deal of the animal population recovery that has happened in the last several decades.

Places like Marineland are outliers and should be closed down, outlawed and heavily fined. Frankly, the owners should be in jail, but that's never gonna happen.

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sayterdarkwynd t1_jbtz1zt wrote

Replying to kayl_breinhar (#2,206,760)

It does. We went for a company outing years ago and dubbed the place Animal Auschwitz for a reason.

In the deer pen there were at least 6 deer bleeding openly, one of which was missing a fucking leg. Like, freshly so. It was still bleeding. No keepers to be seen.

There was a bear enclosure and the only thing people were provided to feed them was corn pops. Sugary cereal they do not eat in nature. And they *really* wanted that sugary crack.

And then the aquatic pens....ugh. Those poor animals. Imagine being shoved into a bathtub and constantly having giant crowds of people fawning over you who won't shut the hell up, and they are your only company.

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Plant__Eater t1_jbufjun wrote

If you want to take action to help animals like Kiska, one way to do so is by supporting Animal Justice.[1] From their website:

>Animal Justice is the only organization of its kind making sure that animals have a legal voice in Canada. Our team of compassionate lawyers and advocates fight for stronger legal protections for animals.[2]

They've filed legal complaints against Marineland at least twice in the past: once on behalf of Kiska[3] and once for specific instances of using cetaceans in entertainment[4] after laws were put into effect making it illegal to do so.[5] (As part of a bill that Animal Justice helped champion.)[6]

They currently have a petition going to prosecute Marineland for unlawful distress inflicted on Kiska.[7]

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izzittho t1_jbuneib wrote

Replying to GrimsbyJanice (#2,203,941)

The problem is that there generally isn’t anywhere for them to go. Arguably euthanizing them would be kinder but I doubt most if any could be released to the wild or anything like that.

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izzittho t1_jbuot5s wrote

Replying to EmotionalSuportPenis (#2,207,011)

This is basically what a lot of actually good zoos do. And for threatened/endangered species, they work on breeding programs, often with other good zoos, to get individuals re-released into the wild to re-establish populations.

The zoo part of it all basically exists for awareness/fundraising for all of that - they let the public see and get to know/love the animals so they can see the importance of protecting/saving them, and generally only keep long-term any animals that just cannot be released, with the goal of actually minimizing the amount that they need to keep. I think that’s a good thing.

You can really see the difference in their behavior and in the enclosure designs and everything. For one, you can’t always see the animals, which is exactly how it should be. They’re allowed to hide when they want, are never alone except for animals that prefer to live alone (some lizards, etc.) Basically, zoos can be good. Captivity generally isn’t the best place for any wild animal, but given the amount that already exist there, there are a lot of zoos that are taking it in an ultimately good direction.

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navikredstar t1_jbztqcv wrote

Replying to caughtinthought (#2,209,163)

Honestly, there were only two options in this case. Euthanasia, which probably SHOULD'VE been done because this poor whale had zero quality of life, or releasing and letting her die naturally in the ocean, because she would not survive it anyway. At least, it's what should have been done, not keeping her penned up and suffering alone for decades.

1