there's a reason they're called KILLER whales people...

The most read article on CNN.com this morning is this, a "shocking" tale of a killer whale @ SeaWorld killing one of its trainers. Should we really be all that surprised when a killer whale, not meant to be kept in captivity and perform tricks for people, kills someone??? Maybe it's like whale justice - we're killing them by keeping them in captivity and turning them into circus acts, so they kill every once in a while. Read the article - it's kind of gruesome how it killed her - but what do we expect? That a predatory mammal should be compassionate and defy it's inherent tendencies simply because we've taken it out of its natural habitat? Interesting. I'm sure my bestie Erin Cole, animal lover and champion of all things furry, wet and wild, would have a LOT to say about this.

It's just kind of sad. I remember falling in love with Free Willy as a kid - partially for Michael Jackson's "Will You Be There" video @ the beginning - but mostly for WILLY. To top it all off, Keiko (the whale from the movie), lived @ the Oregon Coast Aquarium for years after the movie. He was AWESOME, as was the Keiko Rootbeer we purchased from the Aquarium gift shop each time. I'm sure that and our commemorative Keiko medallion are worth a ton of $ if I could just find them. Then they shipped him up to Iceland to be released back into the wild and he died 5 years later in '03. Sad day. So what good is it to keep whales in captivity, if they really don't need to be?