Orca breeding today

    Hello and thank you to my fourth follower! It brings yet another tear to my eye, so thank you :)

 But first, on Orca Network's Facebook page, a very injured whale has been spotted around Puget Sound. Take a look at the info, and if you know of anything to help, please do it, as it is in a very very bad way.

And also, please can you email the Prime Minister of Iceland, begging for them to reclaim Tilly and order SeaWorld to return him to his home waters. The address is: postur@for.stjr.is

 Thank you!

 

    So, onto the next topic, where I will be talking about how the captive orca industry has shaped and developed orca breeding in this day and age. I will be mainly focusing on and explaining the process of artificial insemination, the use of breeding bulls such as Tilikum, and the problems that may arise with any captive female or male orca who are used for the captive breeding programs in such marine park establishments. I apologise for any information that may not seem quite as concise as the marine biologists out there would expect, but I am just trying to illustrate how demeaning this side of the industry really is.

    Firstly, what on earth is AI and how and why is it used? Well, AI stands for Artificial Insemination, and it is a practice that facilitates the meeting of a sperm cell and an egg without the process of actual intercourse. It is used for humans as well as within a variety of animal industries, such as: dog breeding; horse racing; zoos; circuses; the dairy and meat industry; and of course, marine parks. It is used in the marine park industry as transporting the bull (male) orca from park to park would cause stress on the animal, so it is easier and cheaper for them to just get a sperm collection on-site. However, bulls are still transported from place to place on 'breeding loans', which means that they are shipped to any place that wants a bull who can perform on-site, on-demand and produce calves from intercourse. So surely this defeats the point of AI? As bulls are still taken from their homes and put into new temporary ones, which means they are still stressed and moved about, despite the use of AI being so available, not that AI is any better morally or ethically, which is what I am here to illustrate. It may be a case of the marine parks wishing to proclaim that their pregnancies are natural ones as this will give off a certain image- that they are ethical and letting the orcas chose who they breed with. It is of course very profitable for the park leasing out one of their bulls, which may be what the incentive is.

     However, AI is also used so predominantly in the industry now as it allows for gene pools to be mixed, and also for greater selection over who breeds with who. So instead of natural breeding, where they choose their own mate, they must be trained or sedated for the semen collection process, in order for it to be inserted into any female the park chooses. This semen collection can be done in one of two ways, either by masturbation or electroejaculation. The masturbation method takes a bit of training, as it relies on  positive reinforcement and operant conditioning (which is the modification of voluntary behavior) to get its result. The male orca is first shown and introduced to a receptive female orca, and when he shows some of his penis and becomes receptive to the female, he is taken away from her and expected to ejaculate. It was hard to get a clear and concise version of this training process, despite looking through various papers and articles. It seems as though they want to keep they way they train it on the down-low. But from what I can gather, it seems that they leave it till the male is very receptive and then lead him away and ask him to roll onto his back. They then touch his penis in order for him to ejaculate into a bag, and when he does so he is given the positive reinforcement. This is the operant conditioning that modifies his voluntary behaviour (ejaculation) by using positive reinforcement. After several training sessions, the male will be expected to roll over and pronounce his penis and ejaculate into the bag, and all at only the sight of the bag. His sperm will then be stored in a freezer or inserted straight into the female. A video of this method can be seen here. Notice how pitiful and pathetic this huge bull seems. It is as if he has just thrown in the towel, and thrown away his dignity. He just swims over sheepishly, rolls over, and is assaulted and then has his semen robbed from him. How such a huge, powerful, majestic being can be reduced to a sperm-production unit is beyond belief.

    The female's training is much the same- she will be trained to roll over and accept the insertion of the sperm into her vagina whenever she is mature. This should be at 15 years old, however SeaWorld impregnated a 7 and a half year old Kalina, which was far too young to be having a pregnancy, as she was only half the age she should have been. The female will then be made pregnant every 3 to 5 years. The other way of AI is to use electroejaculation, which involves the male being sedated, while an electric probe is inserted into his rectum, next to his prostate. An electric current is then delivered, which leads to a contraction on the prostate and pelvic muscles, leading to ejaculation. This form of semen collection is not as common, as obviously it raises some huge ethical questions, and quite frankly the marine parks do not want that on their backs. They would much rather say that their orcas are voluntarily producing their semen and they are under no drugs or force to do so. But lets face it, orcas are extremely intelligent and emotional beings, they know when they want to reproduce, as they stay with their young throughout their whole life. So they know that what they are being made to do is wrong. They are coerced into it using food and they are forced to comply or they would not get the 'positive reinforcement' i.e. food, that they so crave. Instead, what this practice is, is effectively an assault. These animals know what they should be doing, they know what  they are entitled to. They are forced to perform on cue using the plastic bag, without any emotional or sexual stimulation from a female orca, let alone one that they have chosen for themselves. This is not ethical, and it is not fair.

   The female orca also gets this same immoral treatment, as all of a sudden, without any knowledge or consent, she finds herself pregnant. This is tantamount to rape, as in the orca world they choose when they wish to reproduce, they choose who they reproduce with and they cherish their offspring just as much as any proud human mother would. So when, after their gestation period which could be up to 18 months, a baby pops out, imagine the shock she must feel? I know she will love and look after her child, but all she must be thinking is: 'where did that come from?' Not only that, but during the whole birth there are various people and experts and vets around, gawping, some even in the water. Surely she should at least have some privacy in the most intimate time of her life?

A baby and her mother with a trainer involved already. Do they get no peace? (Photo from angelfire.com)

    Not only this, but after the birth the calves are expected to be getting accustomed to the trainers and the ways of a captive life- dead fish, training, no natural swimming, no natural ocean sights and sounds, and just a few tank members. Not a proper family pod like they would have in their natural habitat. How is this so widely accepted? To produce baby orcas and whole new groups of orcas, with no consideration for their own family bonds, choices or the fact that in the wild they all stay together for their whole lives? Instead these young ones must be in a tank with just a few random other orcas, not necessarily their sisters, brothers or father. It is not even guaranteed that they will be allowed to stay with their mother the whole time. For instance, Shouka who was moved from Marineland Antibes to Six Flags of Ohio in 2002, away from her mother Sharkan and brother Val, and also away from her father Kim II, with whom she had developed a strong bond. She is now all alone, still at Six Flags, with just 2 bottlenose dolphins for company. This is no life for a young female, who was so close to her family back in Antibes. At least there she could live out her sorry captive life with the support of them, but now she has to go it alone. Another example of family bonds being ripped apart would be of Kalina and Keet, when Kalina was moved away from Keet in order for her to accommodate another pregnancy. Keet was only 1 year and 8 months old at this time, and it is almost unbelievable that SeaWorld would allow for this to occur, as it is known that orca pods and families are matrilineal- meaning the males will stay with their mother for their whole lives.

 

Shouka alone in her tiny pool, with no family members for company or support.

(Photo from theorcaproject.wordpress.com) 

     

     The use of breeding bulls is an unfair and unethical practice too. As I have discussed earlier, the means by which they are trained and used and exploited for their semen is far beyond fair, humane and just- whereas the use of Tilikum for his sperm is even more so. He is an orca that is dying to be free. He needs to be free. He has been trained for AI since 1999, that's 11 years of degradtion. He is constantly objecting to his life in captivity and yet no one will listen. Instead, he is all alone, with no proper orca companionship or interaction, and now due to his 'reputation', no human interaction or stimulation either. He is reduced from a huge, powerful and all-encompassing being, to an on-tap sperm bank. This is not the life he needs to live. It is unfair and so demeaning for such a magnificent animal. 

Tilly all alone in his pool, with no friends or family to support him. I can only imagine what he is thinking and reminiscing about. (Photo from Free Tilly Facebook page)

     This human dominance over the lives, and indeed births, of captive orcas is not without its complications and tragedies. There have been so many countless still-births, deaths of mothers, and premature passings of calves it is a wonder places like SeaWorld can still proudly proclaim that their captive orca breeding program is one of the best in the world. Many mothers have died during labour and child-birth, and many calves have died through complications during birth or soon after. A few examples of such tragedies are: 

- Gudrun, who died in 1996 due to complications with a still-birth.

- In 1998 Sumar was born to Taima, who was her first calf. However, when he was just 6 months old, Taima tried to attack him and bit him during a show at SeaWorld. Which begs the question, why was she performing? They should have both been in a separate pool to the shows, in order to bond under less-stressful and agitated circumstances. The noise of the crowd, the splashes, the silly tricks. He does not need to be around that at such a young age, and his mother needed to be around him in private so they could have some intimate bonding time. No wonder she lost it and attacked, she must have felt so stressed, being a new mother expected to perform instead of bond with her baby.

- In 2005, Kayla gave birth to a female called Halyn. However, Kayla did not take to the calf and did not      know what to do, so Halyn had to be taken away and hand-raised at a special facility. It is thought that Kayla did not know what to do as she had never been around a calf before, and had never seen mothering be done. Of course, if she were in the wild this would never have happened, as she would have had one-hand help from her own mother and pod all the way. A member of the pod would of even been with her at the birth.

- In 2008, Hayln died unexpectedly, aged just 2 and a half. This raises a lot of questions about the success rate of birthing at marine parks- and indeed of hand-raising.

- Sadly, in June of this year, Taima died during a birth, aged nearly 21. She had a still-birth because the placenta was delivered before the calf. This was not the only stress put upon poor Taima while in her short captive life, as not only did she become aggressive to Sumar, she also became aggressive to her other son Tekoa, who was born in 2000. She was swimming with him and Katina when she suddenly lashed out at Tekoa. Katina, who was pregnant at the time, then tried to get involved to protect him, but Taima then turned on her. Katina was so hurt and distressed by the incident that she was very lucky she kept her baby. It is a wonder why SeaWorld still insisted on getting her pregnant, despite two very aggressive and dangerous incidences in which she tried to hurt her own child. This sort of behaviour is very rare in the wild, and again proves how negligent and inconsiderate the marine parks are when breeding orcas. They should have left Taima alone, but instead impregnated her further, which ultimately caused her death.

 - In October of this year, Kohana (who was 8 at the time and so also very young to be impregnated) gave birth to a male calf after a four hour labour. However, she did not take to him and that prompted staff to take him away and hand-raise him.

    It seems as though the captivity industry has not yet showed the compassion that it so desperately needs when regarding the future lives of orcas, as they seem to just impregnate here and there, whoever and wherever and whenever they choose. They have even created hybrid orcas, such as Kalina, who was half Icelandic and half Southern Resident, and Taima who was half Transient and half Icelandic. This would not happen in the wild, and will no doubt have some negative consequences in the near future, as certain gene pools and matrilineal lines will be wiped out. There are also risks of inbreeding, as Kohana's calf was fathered by Keto- her half uncle. Not to mention the use of birth-controls and hormones which are pumping them full of medication and chemicals, and not to mention the fact these parks let young females become pregnant, even if they are too young. There are just too many arguments against captive orca breeding, yet the only argument for it is to restock the empty tanks where they are all dying at abysmally high rates, which to be frank, is not a good enough reason to allow it.

    So that concludes this post, hope it's been informative and highlighted some of the key moral and ethical arguments against captive orca breeding programs. Thanks for reading :)

And if anyone has any more details regarding the topic, please feel free to comment.