Stop the Killer Whale Minstrel Show!   Tilikum, the Killer
Whale, lived up to his name and killed a human being. Dawn
Brancheau, his trainer, was his third kill. There is a heated
controversy about programs that use our intellectually closest
mammals as players in a captive minstrel show–making them jump
through hoops, do tail stands and generally cavort for the
pleasure of the human race.  The argument for the use of
captive, and bred in captivity, dolphins and killer whales (also
technically a kind of dolphin and not whale) is that they make
us feel closer to them and care about their plight. This is an
argument that had merit. I have no doubt that Flipper awakened a
sense of empathy in generations of human children. Flipper
lived, like a kind of biblical “Suffering Servant” and
thousands, if not hundred of thousands, of dolphins were spared.
Dolphin-free tuna programs came directly from our appreciation
of the intelligence of dolphins.  Entertainment companies such
as Sea World and Marineland brought milli