Question:
After all he's been through, Keiko passed away from pneumonia.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._mo/keiko_dies
I really hate the notion of taking sea animals and keeping them in aquariums for entertainment purposes. It's a tragedy that Keiko suffered so much in his life.


Answer:
I'm against it also but I can't help but wonder if he still would be alive if they had kept him in captivity (I'm not talking about the place he was rescued from of course. New Mexico, was it?) This poor animal wanted to stay with people in the end. It's all very sad.


Answer:
It is sad that he passed. I have to wonder too, if they just kept him in captivity, in a better environment- would he be alive still?
25 years of being captive says a lot. How much "Wildness" is really in an animal who only saw wild life for 1-2 years, and lived the rest of his life in captivity, with people, being fed?


Answer:
Megan, I think you & CTChin make good points. Ideally, there would be no caged animals in the world, but that is not a reality. Keiko seemed to enjoy human compnay ... especially since orcas are social creatures and don't do well (generally) in isolation from a pod.
I wish they'd have kept Keiko in captivity in an aquarium which would have provided lots of space and entertainment for him. I'm sad to hear that he's passed away


Answer:
I was so sad to hear this news. I agree to I think if they would have kept him captivity he might have stood a better chance at survival. But I am a firm believer that when your time is up you time is up. Hopefully they have learned from this mistakes and can prevent it in the future.
Shannon


Answer:
Emotionally upset animals of any species often get sick & die when removed from what they are used to in terms of human attention & environment. This is sad but hardly suprising. Keiko's release was symbollic, to satisfy a bunch of people who think killer whales are all cute & belong in the wild. It sounds to me like he should have remained captive & well cared for if that's what he was used to.
Oh well, another animal dies because of human stupidity.


Answer:
that's so sad


Answer:
I only found out about keikos death this morning and was very sad about it. I too dislike the idea of wild animals kept in captivity but this whale knew nothing else and people kept pushing him into something that was not right for him. Poor whale, I hope this death is not in vain and everyone learns a valuable lesson from it.