Stacie

“Keiko was interested in videos of other orcas, but his favorite seemed to be Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the only movie he watched in its entirety. He also showed interest in parts of Blazing Saddles and The Lion King, but reportedly turned his back on Free Willy.”
― David Kirby, Death at SeaWorld: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity

“Gudrun had a rough time when she got to Florida. Not only did Katina assert her dominance by raking and shoving the newcomer, but SeaWorld began breeding her almost immediately. She was locked in a back pool with Kanduke, who chased her around the tank, trying to penetrate her over and over, and often succeeding. What seemed like serial rape to Jeff produced the birth of Taima, the unpredictable Transient-Icelandic hybrid, in July 1989. Born during a summer storm, her name was a Native American word for 'crash of thunder.' It would prove to be an appropriate moniker.”
― David Kirby, Death at SeaWorld: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity

“What we should enjoy, perhaps, is not their performance, but the mere fact of their existence. That, we believe, is wonder enough.”
― David Kirby, Death at SeaWorld: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity

“I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I’ve come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”
― G. M. Gilbert