Oregonians Bid Farewell to Killer Whale Keiko With Songs, Poems, Exhibits (Warm 'n Fuzzy Alert)

Oregonians Bid Farewell to Keiko, a Popular Killer Whale, With Songs, Poems, Exhibits By Joseph B. Frazier Associated Press Writer

NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) - Nearly 700 people, some wiping away tears, turned out to bid farewell to Keiko, the killer whale who starred in the popular "Free Willy" movies, and died overseas in December. The crowd gathered Friday at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, where he splashed his way into visitors' hearts from 1996 to 1998.

"Keiko was not one of our kind but nonetheless he was still one of us," Thomas Chatterton, a veterinary chaplain said during the service.

Officials at the aquarium organized the event in response to hundreds of e-mails, letters and phone calls from Keiko's fans, who sought closure.

At his memorial, songs were sung, poems read, candles lighted, exhibits of his life and journey unveiled. A fund drive has put in motion a commission for a bronze sculpture of the whale, which was captured as an infant near Iceland in 1979 for the aquarium trade.

Keiko gained fame in the "Free Willy" movie about a young boy who befriends a captive killer whale and coaxes him to jump over a sea park wall to freedom. Two sequels followed.

Keiko was brought to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in 1996 after the popular films prompted a $20 million program to free him from a Mexico City amusement park, where he'd been found languishing in poor conditions.

From Oregon, Keiko was sent to Iceland, near where he was born, for preparation for his return to the wild. When he was released in 2002, he swam 870 miles to the waters near the Norwegian village of Halsa. Keiko died in Norway, probably of pneumonia, in December.

On Friday, fans viewed footage of Keiko swimming free in the wild, part of a film being produced by the Free Willie-Keiko Foundation and Portland singer-producer Theresa Demarest.

Former handlers talked of Keiko's gentleness and love of fun and games. A boy of perhaps six hugged a Keiko stuffed animal nearly half his own size.

Chatterton, the chaplain, said Keiko taught aquarium visitors about trust, patience and an unappreciated intelligence.

"Why should we care so much about a fish in times of poverty and homeless children?" he said. "Because he endeared himself to millions of people."

And if they had kept him there he likely would be alive today.

IIRC, some of the whale experts at Sea World said "DON'T release him!"

After being dumped back into the wild Keiko often would seek out humans to be with,
shunning the company of other whales. Taking a animal that has been tamed and
forcing it back into the wild is no kindness.

I think Keiko swam something like 600 miles to find a harbor where he could
commune with the only real friends he's known...human beings.

Unfortunately some really adled human beings sentenced him to death by
giving him his "freedom".

It's truly ironic that these same "compassionate, feeling" souls would be the
first to hiss at the passage of Bastiat's "The Law" which says that humans
have the freedom to do as they wish, even if it's to live as homeless people.

Oregon used to know how to handle dead whales before it became all sissyfied.

The Farside Comes to Life in Oregon
By Dave Barry (1990)

I am absolutely not making this incident up; in fact I have it all on videotape. The tape is from a local TV news show in Oregon, which sent a reporter out to cover the removal of a 45-foot, eight-ton dead whale that washed up on the beach. The responsibility for getting rid of the carcass was placed upon the Oregon State Highway Division, apparently on the theory that highways and whales are very similar in the sense of being large objects.

So anyway, the highway engineers hit upon the plan -- remember, I am not making this up -- of blowing up the whale with dynamite. The thinking here was that the whale would be blown into small pieces, which would be eaten by sea gulls, and that would be that. A textbook whale removal.

So they moved the spectators back up the beach, put a half-ton of dynamite next to the whale and set it off. I am probably not guilty of understatement when I say that what follows, on the videotape, is the most wonderful event in the history of the universe. First you see the whale carcass disappear in a huge blast of smoke and flame. Then you hear the happy spectators shouting "Yayy!" and "Whee!" Then, suddenly, the crowd's tone changes. You hear a new sound like "splud." You hear a woman's voice shouting "Here come pieces of... MY GOD!" Something smears the camera lens.

Later, the reporter explains: "The humor of the entire situation suddenly gave way to a run for survival as huge chunks of whale blubber fell everywhere." One piece caved in the roof of a car parked more than a quarter of a mile away. Remaining on the beach were several rotting whale sectors the size of condominium units. There was no sign of the sea gulls, who had no doubt permanently relocated in Brazil. This is a very sobering videotape. Here at the institute we watch it often, especially at parties. But this is no time for gaiety. This is a time to get hold of the folks at the Oregon State Highway division and ask them, when they get done cleaning up the beaches, to give us an estimate on the US Capitol.

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