#tilikum

YAY SOMEONE IS ASKING ME TO YAP :D Ok, my experience as an orca therian is directly tied to my factkin identities as Tilikum and Tokitae/Lolita

First I'm gonna talk about how being Tokitae affects my life

She is one of my walk-in souls and joined me after her death in 2023. She is my only Southern Resident killer whale soul and affects more of the way I perceive the world than my personality like Tilikum does. Because of her I try to see the good in everything, but it gets hard a lot. I tend to not like living in small spaces as much due to how I was treated at Miami Seaquarium. I have memories of Hugo (the other orca I lived with) and the different species of dolphins I lived with. I still get to hang out with Li'i (one of the Pacific whitesided dolphins I knew) as he lives at SeaWorld San Antonio which I frequent. I try to suppress my memories about Penn Cove and the capture, so please don't ask about that

My identity as Tilikum is possibly one of my strongest identities. I've been him since I was born, but really "became" him in 2017 after his death. Due to this identity affecting my personality so greatly I tend to feel a lot of dysphoria when I realize I'm not me. I do frequent my local SeaWorld park to hang out with the other orcas (I go there so much the employees know me by name). I'm really sweet, but I'm not afraid to bite (literally). I still feel a deep friendship with Dawn even after all these years and I genuinely regret all of my kills. That being said, I never did it on purpose or due to stress (except for at Sealand of the Pacific fuck that place). I fully support SeaWorld and I oppose documentaries like Blackfish as I feel they paint my trainers and me in a horrible light.

Some general things about me being an orca in general include really REALLY loving seafood, swimming, and hanging out with my friends. I also tend to really just act more orca than human somedays.

𖤐A poem about being an orca held captive once more𖤐

Oh how it hurts

I don't have my flukes or flippers or fins

I walk on land amongst the humans

Oh the pain of being human

I smack at the walls of my new vessel

But I guess I'm captive again

I wish I was still at SeaWorld

If I was there I'd be me again

Oh the pain of being human

The most I can stay underwater is 2 minutes

And I can't live in it anymore

I go to school and waste my life

Learning behaviors in a way that is cruel

In a tank too small every day

At least at SeaWorld I had space

But the words sting more than rake marks

And the loneliness is more painful than being taken away

Oh the pain of being human

Why do this to me

I'm an innocent orca

My name is Tilikum

But nobody now knows me

Now I'm truly in need of saving

But not from humanity

I need to be rescued

my hand hurts so much-

this is a quick drawing of Nixie and Tilikum (my human version)

a quick thing on tilikum:

tilikum was one of the most infamous orcas in captivity, and involved in three deaths, (Keltie Lee Byrne, Dawn Brancheau and Daniel P. Dukes)

Their deaths were the consequences of taking poor Tilikum from his pod , putting Tilikum in captivity in tiny tanks for 33 years and expecting him to do tricks for visitors .

He deserved so much better.

and Seaworld(American not Australian) still has orcas in captivity to this day. Even though they’ve stopped their breeding programs, there are still orcas in small, isolated tanks, forced to do tricks for human enjoyment.

Me live-blogging my re-read of the OSHA vs SeaWorld document to @orcinus-veterinarius is basically me getting increasingly frustrated with David Duffus comparing wild killer whale behaviour to killer whales that never learned predatory behaviour… and being annoyed at how obtuse and toxic SeaWorld management was around incidents.