OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR: 'Willy' Didn't Yearn to Be Free

NY Times OP-ED ^ | December 27, 2003 | CLIVE D. L. WYNNE

[Pharmboy]

GAINESVILLE, Fla. When Keiko the killer whale, star of the movie "Free Willy," beached himself earlier this month in western Norway, the story of probably the most expensive animal in human history came to an end. By the time of Keiko's death, seven years of effort and more than $20 million had been spent vainly — and unwisely — trying to return the whale to the wild.

Although Paul Irwin, president of the Humane Society of the United States, committed his organization to providing Keiko "with the chance of freedom," there was never a shred of evidence to suggest that freedom was an aspiration that Keiko shared with the humans who cared for him. Indeed, what we know about Keiko's response to his attempted liberation suggests quite the opposite.

Born 26 or 27 years ago somewhere near Iceland, Keiko was captured in 1979 and sold as an exhibit. Killer whales, with their awesome size and eagerness to turn a trick for a few pounds of herring, can be moneymakers for aquariums.

Thrust from a fading attraction in a Mexican amusement park into stardom in 1993 by "Free Willy," about a boy who rescues a killer whale from a rundown cetacean sideshow, Keiko soon became the subject of a real-life rescue effort on a scale not even Hollywood could have imagined.

In a special tank in Oregon, Keiko received remedial training in how to be a proper killer whale — which means killing things. But he never really took to the role. Nonetheless, after two years of boot camp, Keiko was shipped off to Iceland, where he was gradually reintroduced into the wild northern oceans in the summer of 2000. For a while, it looked as if the effort was succeeding, and in the summer of 2002 Keiko explored the North Atlantic.

He may even have caught a few wild fish. But in September that year Keiko showed up on the shores of western Norway performing his tricks for delighted locals. Ever hopeful, Keiko's "rescuers" shifted him to a more obscure fjord whence they hoped to tempt him into killer-whale society. Steadfastly refusing their entreaties, Keiko died on Dec. 12 after a bout with pneumonia.

A love of animals is no bad thing, but when one beast receives more resources than all but the tiniest fraction of the world's wealthiest people, we should at least stop and think for a moment.

Keiko should probably never have been removed from his native pod. But, once that was done, nothing in his story suggests that this highly social mammal, imprinted on humans at an early age, was a serious candidate for return to the rough and tumble of life on the ocean waves. It is a classic anthropomorphic fallacy to believe that an animal's best interests are whatever a human would desire under similar circumstances.

In his latest domicile, Keiko was supported by an international team of experts who fed him dead herring at an annual cost of over half a million dollars and worked feverishly to continue to "free" him. Despite all the money, time and sincere effort, Keiko did not die in the company of his own species, but up against a pier, seeking human consolation.

Clive D. L. Wynne, associate professor of psychology at the University of Florida, is author of the forthcoming "Do Animals Think?"

[Pharmboy]

It's not nice to try and fool with Mother Nature. Sad story; but Willy didn't want be free.

Surprised the Times published this point of view...

[BartMan1]

Heartwrenching ping....

[whereasandsoforth]

Kinda reminds me of the welfare system in this country. It is possible to help someone to death.

[LadyDoc]

willy was a "pet". Releasing him in the wild was just as cruel as abandoning a pet dog in the woods...

And this is a NYTimes? editorial?

But the animal lovers would rather spend 20 million to rescue willy than give measles vaccine to poor africans...or even send food there.

[Mamzelle]

What, and leave show business?

[pikachu]

The 20 million, the years, and the failure will not matter to those 'whales are as smart as humans' crowd. The FACT that they gave money to move a whale out of a Mexican aquariam is what they will claim as a victory. Why? Because they 'freed Willy' and everything else is just a minor distraction to them. Who cares if the whale never adapted? They returned a whale to the wild. Just like all the mental ward inmates they returned to heating grates in the big cities. The mental ward patients and the whale are 'free' no matter what the cost to the rest of society.

[Catspaw]

You and I are thinking along the same lines. Willie was domesticated from an early age. Attempting to putting him back out in the wild was about the same as me shoving my Lhasa out into the woods & demanding he fend for himself because he's related to wolves.

[Tired_of_the_Lies]

When I was a child in Southern Lousisana, we had a pet nutria, which, for those of you who don't know, is a large swamp rat and quite dangerous in the wild. One of my cousin's had killed its mother when she attacked him for (quite unknowingly) getting too close to her nest and brought the baby to my Mother to raise.

One day, after Newton was grown, he chewed his way out of his cage and went for a stroll down the block in our residential neighborhood. The animal control folks picked him up and took him to the edge of the swamp and dropped him off (not knowing he was a pet).

When my Mother finally found out what happened, she asked the animal control folks to please go find him, and they said they would though they did not expect to be able to do so because of the amount of time that had passed (several hours). To their surprise, Newton was sitting pretty much right where they had left him.

He was probably wondering why he hadn't been fed yet. He certainly displayed no desire or intention to return to the wild.

[MaryFromMichigan]

But in September that year Keiko showed up on the shores of western Norway performing his tricks for delighted locals.

This is so d--- sad.

[Tired_of_the_Lies]

What the animal rights folks did to him was so unbearably cruel.

[Darnright]

>Keiko should probably never have been removed from his native pod. But, once that was done, nothing in his story suggests that this highly social mammal, imprinted on humans at an early age, was a serious candidate for return to the rough and tumble of life on the ocean waves. It is a classic anthropomorphic fallacy to believe that an animal's best interests are whatever a human would desire under similar circumstances.

Note the italicized statement above. Let's pretend a human was raised with some other intelligent species. The human learned to love and to communicate with this species.

One day, the human is dumped in with a bunch of other people with whom he has nothing in common, and expected to adapt.

Would our human be truly happy with his own species? Are we positive about this?

[sergeantdave]

Poor Willy.

Recruited by kulaks in his youth and given a good job to perform for herring. But capitalist whales working for pay didn't fit the statist's scheme.

The evil Leninists kidnapped Willy from the kulaks and took him away from his capitalist job - jumping from the water and collecting his herring pay - and placed him in the care of do-gooders (the all knowing state.)

Alas, poor Willy missed his life of meaningful work for herring and realized he was now a captive of the state. In his gulag he yearned to do his job - jump from the water and collect herring pay - but his socialist masters knew what was best for Willy.

They force-fed him the herring he loved, but Willy knew he never did any work to earn it. His life lost meaning as a ward of the all knowing state. He could no longer do the job he loved - jump from the water and collect herring pay.

The evil Leninists threw Willy into the wild but Willy was at last free to do the job he loved - jump from the water and collect herring pay. Willy visited boats and piers and jumped from the water and collected herring pay. Life was good again for Willy.

Alas, the evil Leninists captured Willy again and sent him off to a lonely gulag where he couldn't do his job - jump from the water and collect herring pay.

Willy soon became depressed because he couldn't do his job. Finally, poor Willy died. On his headstone is his epitath: "Another capitalist killed by Marxists."

[You Dirty Rats]

You can take the whale out of Show Biz, but you can't take the Show Biz out of the whale.

[Pharmboy]

Definitely cuter than a rat...

When I was a kid, my next door neighbor's mom had a nutria coat.

[Pharmboy]

LOL...excellent deconstruction of these events.

[BraveMan]

That story could be made into a movie!

[cyncooper]

And this is a NYTimes? editorial?

It is a guest opinion. Though they did print it, they more or less have to so they can say they publish opposing points of view.

[cyncooper]

It is very sad.

These animal rights groups don't like people, so they just couldn't believe this poor thing preferred hanging around we humans, where he received much attention, interaction and approval.

No, these groups like to think "simple animals" are superior in some fashion to evil humans, hence this ridiculous exercise to "free" this whale.

[Mr Rogers]

When I was a kid, I loved the movie "Born Free". When I read the books as an adult, I noted Elsa the lioness died of disease a couple of years after returning to the wild. Somehow, I doubt the wild is what Elsa would have chosen for herself - she probably would have been quite happy mating with male lions in a zoo & living 20 years.

As an aside, some lyrics from the Arrogant Worms:

I'm a shark, I'm a shark
A killer of the ocean
I'm a shark, I'm a shark
And silently I strike
I'm a shark, I'm a shark
I'm dumber than a tree
I only have three thoughts and they are
Eat, swim, eat

(He's a shark, he's a shark)
I was swimming in the ocean
(He's a shark, he's a shark)
I got picked up by a boat
A team of lonely fishermen sold me to a park
And now my name is Billy, I'm a theme park shark

Billy the theme park shark
Performing tricks for tourists
Who have paid five bucks a head
Billy the theme park shark
He looks just like a killer
But he's too well fed

The sight of blood once put me in a frenzy
Now it means that it's time to clean the pool

I'm a shark, I'm a shark
I'm swimming in a pool
I'm a shark, I'm a shark
I don't have to fight for food
I get three meals a day and some extra on the weekend
And I'm the only shark I know who has a dental plan
(who has a dental plan)

Billy the theme park shark
Jumping at a football
that's suspended overhead
Billy the theme park shark
He looks just like a killer
but he's too well fed

(He's a shark, he's a shark)
But I'm not in my natural habitat
(He's fat and old and lazy)
but I'm happier here
I really hope these activists don't free Billy
Cause out there in the wild I'd be dead

Then one day just after a performance
He barfed up a flounder on the owner of the park

Billy the theme park shark
Performing tricks for tourists
Then throwing up his meal
Billy the theme park shark
Now he's been replaced by a juggling seal

Billy (Billy) Billy (Billy)
The number one attraciton of an aqua petting zoo
Billy (Billy) Billy (Billy)
The poster fish of Tourism Iowa!

[Tired_of_the_Lies]

They are cute little guys. I am not, however, a proponent of having nutria (or any other wild animals) for pets.

Newton was a special case. He would have died if left in the wild because he had not yet been weaned from his mother when she was killed. Also, my Mother was extremely good at establishing rapport with animals, and that counts for a lot in dealing with a wild animal.

As to your neighbor, people clothes made from nutria pelt must be made from a soft undercoat because the outer coat is somewhat prickly, not smooth or cuddly at all.