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Sustainable
eNews |
October 2002 |
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IWMC
World Conservation Trust |
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Feed Willy - Because an
Old Whale can't learn new Tricks
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That's right, Willy is an old whale. Orcas live to maybe 30 or so, and
Willy is 24. His animal rightist "friends" have not done him any
favors in turning him out from the pen in Iceland waters, where he was fed
regularly, and now he is visibly stressed, and in danger of losing his
life. This now unfortunate mammal, raised in captivity as a stunt animal,
has been fed and cared for since his capture as a youngster. He was used to
great benefit for animal rightists in the film "Free Willy", and
was moved from a less than admirable facility in Mexico to a modern and
adequate aquarium in the northwestern United States.
Willy then fell on hard times, when the Humane Society of the United
States and other radical organizations demanded that he be removed from his
safe and protected home environment, and delivered to an ocean pen off the
coast of Iceland, where his pod had originated. They claimed that Willy
would remember the dialect of his orca relatives, and that they would
accept him back as a newly wild companion, and he would live happily ever
after. Free at last.
It didn't work. Poor Willy wouldn't try to catch his own fish. He wanted
people to always feed him dead ones, and for four years, and during the
expenditure of twenty million dollars, Willy was hand fed by fishermen who
visited him with all that he needed to survive. They tried to get him to go
out on his own, leading him out of the pen with a motor boat, and they
"introduced" him to the area's wild orcas. Neither they nor Willy
were interested in striking up a social relationship. Willy didn't want to
be free, because freedom meant hunger, and loss of the human companionship
that was his substitute for the orca way of life. Willy was somewhat like
an old dog that has always been in the company of people. If such an old
dog was suddenly turned out of its home, with no familiar food offered on a
regular basis, and no familiar companionship, it would be confused,
probably frightened, and it would suffer. This is apparently what has
happened to Willy.
Willy left his pen environment in July, (perhaps he was released and not
allowed back in) and swam from Iceland to Norway, where he at last found
people in a boat. He followed them to their home fjord, where he was mobbed
as a famous movie actor orca. Children reportedly even rode on his back,
people fed him, and he wouldn't leave. But Willy wasn't home free. His long
time protectors, alarmed that he was in possibly hostile territory, and
feeling still responsible for his welfare, flew immediately to Norway and
resumed control of Willy, begging people to quit feeding him, obtaining
blood samples, and finally, admitting that he is in bad shape.
Willy is now on antibiotics. His protectors fear that he has a
respiratory infection, as evidenced by a very high white blood count. He is
being fed by hand again. A famous Norwegian whaler and parliamentarian,
Steinar Bastesen, has called for Willy to be returned to the United States,
to a safe aquarium, to spend the rest of his days in peace and comfort,
where he will never be hungry, and where he will be loved and cared for
like the "old dog" he is. How ironic, that a seasoned whaler
should make such an impassioned plea for this animal, whose high quality of
life in the aquarium was interrupted and destroyed by those who wanted to
see "Free Willy" live out the dreams of his producers. Yes
producers, because the animal that Willy really is, is not the animal in
the movie. Real Willy is a tame, abused, abandoned, and now probably doomed
orca. We are sorry Willy, that our species has done this to you. May you
soon find peace. 
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