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From CNN anchor, Jane Velez-Mitchell:

When it comes to animal exploitation -- follow the money. Using animals for entertainment is big business, plain and simple. The killer whale Tilikum has helped SeaWorld sell millions of dollars worth of tickets.

Yes, indeed...it's all about the money:

Zoos and animal amusement attractions use the cover of "science" to justify their shows. Getting a whale to splash kids with water is not science. SeaWorld says it supports wildlife conservation, research and education and has rescued thousands of stranded and sick animals. While many of the handlers are undoubtedly well-intentioned and love the animals, the fact is that parks such as SeaWorld are money-making operations. It's about profit.

These animals come from the wild and should go back to nature:

As talking heads debate this avoidable tragedy, few pause to reflect on where it all started. It began in the oceans off Iceland. That's where Tilikum was born. He was born free, free to swim up to 100 miles a day, as killer whales are known to do in the wild.

His idyllic life turned into a living hell in 1983. That's when he was captured. Capture of a wild animal is invariably traumatic. He was put in a small pen. After a stint in a Canadian aquarium that ended in tragedy when a trainer was killed by Tilikum and two other whales, the animal was transferred to SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida.

You try living in your bathtub for 25 years!

Tilikum has spent more than a quarter of a century swimming in circles, in a space that critics say would be equivalent to keeping a human being in a bathtub. Would you get resentful, angry, maybe even a little rageful and psychotic if you were kept in a bathtub-sized tank forced to swim in circles for more than 25 years?

Egg-zactly!

postscript, from the L.A. Times:

We don't expect SeaWorld to call an immediate halt to its ventures and simultaneously set up expensive coastal refuges for the trained orcas, which at this stage probably could not survive in the wild. But the breeding should end and the parks should prepare for the performances' eventual extinction.

White tigers in a Las Vegas magic show, Asian elephants in a traveling circus or Shamu bursting from a pool with a wetsuit-clad trainer standing on its nose -- they all had their place when we were ignorant about the fragility of wildlife and the folly of forcing wild animals to do our human bidding on artificial turf (or surf). Now we know that the best way to appreciate the wonders of these animals is by watching an awe-inspiring nature film and then contributing to habitat conservation efforts.

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