Free Willy, Kill Tilly

2010-03-08 05:33 PM

ChristyR
Denton, TX
Posts: 197

A blogger for the American Family Association wrote a rather controversial blog on February 26^th regarding the SeaWorld death by whale incident.

In case you are not familiar with the story, here it is in a nutshell. An adult Orca Whale (Tilly) that has been in captivity for over 25 years was involved in a horrific event in which his trainer was drug underwater and drowned. Many think the event was triggered when the trainer flung her ponytail and accidently hit the whale in the nose. Tragic? Yes. Unexpected? Not really. Try having someone keep you in captivity for 25 years and then hit you in the face with their hair. See if that doesn’t make you snap.

Bryan Fischer clearly doesn’t think the event is justified, regardless of the circumstances.

He quoted bible scripture suggesting that any animal that kills a human should not only be put to death, but should be put to death by… drum-roll please…. STONING. Yes, that’s right. The gruesome act of hitting someone, or in this case a 22 ft killer whale, with rocks until it bleeds to death.

More-over, he quotes scripture saying that if the animal kills a second time, the animal’s owner should be punished by death as well. Meaning that person in charge of the “Shamu” division of SeaWorld should be right beside Tilly when the thrashing begins.

Obviously this blog got quite a bit of negative attention, so he did update it on March 5^th to say that he didn’t mean the scripture quote to be taken literally. Rather that the animal should be put down humanely, and criminal charges should be pressed against those in charge of the whale.

Luckily, SeaWorld does NOT agree with this man on either account and has no plan on killing, or throwing rocks at, any person or animal.

Personally, I believe not letting Tilly do any more shows would be an appropriate reaction. It isn’t like the whale is going to escape from its tank and go on a killing spree if you let it live.

I would really like a Christian’s point of view on this.

Do you think that Tilly should be put down?

Should anyone at SeaWorld be pressed with criminal charges for this incident?

2010-03-09 04:56 PM

Small Town Mom
Cumby, TX
Posts: 1

I do not think the whale should be put down. We see this over and over again with other animals. They are WILD no matter how much time we spend "training" them. Anyone who puts their self in a wild animals "personal space" has taken the responsibility of their safety into their own hands just as a race car driver has each time he climbs behind the wheel. It is very sad that the young lady is dead, but she had to know the risks of her job and I would be willing to bet that Sea World had policies in place that were not followed to the letter (how many of you out there have always followed "company policy" while performing the everyday duties of your job?). It is a sad truth in our world that money will trump all else. When people stop paying to see caged animals perform "tricks", places like Sea World will cease to exist. Until then we can expect more stories like this one.