Joe Rogan Marks the Death Of Tilikum The Orca And Says SeaWorld Executives Should Be In Jail

Tilikum, the killer whale, died last month while in captivity at SeaWorld’s park in Orlando. The killer whale died at 36-years-old, the maximum lifespan is 60 to 70 years for males and one female orca is 103-years-old and still alive and kicking in the wild. This sparked Joe Rogan to speak his mind on why keeping these intelligent creatures locked up in a swimming pool is criminal.

Rogan points out that not only is the intelligent and magnificent creature held in a tiny water prison for the entertainment of people, but it also has the purpose of making future “slave babies.” Rogan said it is crazy for it to be legal to keep orcas in captivity and anyone who does should be arrested for “profiting off of enslaving intelligent beings and making them do flips.”

Rogan offered the idea of an ocean zoo where people go out into their orca’s natural habitat and people can feed and watch killer whales.

Tilikum was best known for starring in the “Blackfish” documentary that exposed the harsh conditions that killer whales are subjected to under captivity at SeaWorld parks. Tilikum was involved in the deaths of three trainers, starting in the 90s and the latest coming in 2010.

Unna, Tilikum’s daughter, died a year ago at just 19-years-old after a months-long battle with a fungus infection. Tilikum died from bacterial pneumonia.

Pneumonia is a secondary sign of something else that’s wrong with the animal. So what was the other contributing health concern with Tilikum?

Naomi Rose, a marine biologist and orca expert with the Animal Welfare Institute, believes stress could have been a factor in the orca’s death.

“All [captive] orcas are, in my opinion, under constant low levels of stress,” she said. “That’s why they don’t live very long.”

Stress can make animals more susceptible to diseases like pneumonia.

[Reddit]