One of my favorite shows growing up was Flipper – the TV show of the 60’s – complete with scary situations, scary people (sometimes) and a perfectly wonderful sentient being – Flipper – who always saved the day with the aid of intrepid kids and their movie star handsome dad. “They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning, no one you see, is smarter than he. And we know Flipper lives in a world full of wonder, lying there under, under the sea”. Now that song will be in your head for the rest of the day – you’re welcome.
Most everyone knows by now that the Flippers’ head trainer – there was more than one Flipper and most were usually female although the song references a male – Ric O’Barry, has become an outspoken animal activist against captivity for dolphins among others. He has related a very moving account of how one of the last Flippers he trained – a dolphin by the name of Kathy – died in his arms while refusing to draw her last breath – dolphins are conscious breathers unlike humans. Eventually, Mr. O’Barry was part of the documentary “The Cove” which exposed the ritualistic slaughter of dolphins in Japan as well as the capture and sale of young dolphins for human entertainment purposes. And although the movie “Blackfish” is about orcas and “The Cove” is about dolphins the other more glaring difference between Flipper and Tillikum, the orca featured in “Blackfish” is that Flipper eventually had a hero come out in support of her and her species – Mr. O’Barry. A transformed hero who previously participated in the capture and training of dolphins for 10 years and who courageously recognized the errors of his ways and, as I said, transformed himself into an animal activist. No transformed hero appeared during the entire 83 minutes of Tillikum’s and other orcas’ life stories and let’s face it: the movie wouldn’t have been successful without the sensationalistic approach of man vs. beast and who will win – cue the villain music , Beethoven’s 5th symphony, opening movement – da da da DUH – you’re welcome, again. As human animals we tend to look at wildlife as being sometimes dangerous and unpredictable – unlike, we think (key word, think), our fellow human animal beings – and as such it activates our shadow self, a necessary part of ourselves. Who doesn’t love a good “who dunnit” which is the theme behind “Blackfish” in my opinion. Often following or preceding a movie is a book about a real life story that’s been fancied up a bit for entertainment value and that’s set to happen – one of the trainers who was in “Blackfish” is planning to write a book about his life as an orca trainer at SeaWorld. I can’t wait to see if the book is about the orcas, their lives and their horrific existence in captivity or a second rendition of what the movie was actually about from my perspective: that being the loss/injury of/to human life and the blaming of that loss on orcas, the widespread brainwashing delusion on the part of humans that they were involved a “relationship” with a wild sentient being whose intellect and intuition far outstripped their own, that this “relationship” of – let’s face if – master and slave – had been betrayed by the orca, and their belief that as a “trainer of an animal” human intellect and forced captivity would always come out on top. No word yet on where the proceeds from his book sales will go although I doubt that it will go toward funding of a sea pen built specifically to house still-captive orcas. All of this – including continually calling them killer whales– the last time you’ll see those words in print from me simply because of their place in the marine food chain as a top predators and not because they are, in fact, killers – only humans hold that dubious honor – Is. Not. Okay.
I would be the first to agree that “Blackfish” has generated a large amount of positive hype for orcas in captivity – online petitions, negative fiscal impact to the SeaWorld corporation due to lowered attendance at their numerous locations, entertainers pulling out of performing at SeaWorld, etc. The question is in this case do the means really justify the end? What exactly has changed for those orcas in the movie? Not. One. Single. Thing. And it also doesn’t alter the fact that in the movie itself, rife with humans blaming, justifying and defending their behavior and the parts they all played in the imprisonment of fellow sentient beings, not one person stepped up and owned it: “What’s being done at SeaWorld is wrong, wrong, wrong and I am ashamed that I was part of it.” In other words, what the orcas of the world are waiting for is their own hero in the same manner as Ric O’Barry to apologize from his/her heart that what was done to them and is still being done to them – just like the dolphins in Japan – is, was and always will be – wrong, wrong, wrong – and a pledge that human beings will begin to change for the better. That’s why “Blackfish” was so disappointing to me as a human as it made clear the One Human Animal is still deep in denial about the unity of all sentient beings on our planet. We still believe that our actions against other beings simply because they are different from us do not also affect in equal measure actions coming toward us from others. This is species racism – believing another species to be inferior to your species and until this changes we will continue to be truly united as one energetically and have to continually ask ourselves “why am I hurting, why am I being betrayed, why am I unloved.” The answer is – because others are, too.