dog cruelty facts

my name is orkid, and this is my story. i was born in 1988, atshamu stadium at seaworld san diego. the first thing i saw was my mom. her name was kandu. and then... i saw all the people. so many people taking pictures. i didn't know then what i know now. i was named after my dad.

but he died a few days after i was born. my mother took care of me the best shecould, even though we were really cramped! she told me that she was born in a wideopen space, where she lived with her pod, and that they could explore and swim forhundreds of miles. it sounded like a wonderful place. but one day, she was taken from her mom and pod and brought here-- where there is no place to explore, no place to go. soon they started forcingme to perform.

if we did the tricks the right way, then we got to eat more. if we didn't do the tricks, sometimes they'd give us less food and we'd get hungry. sometimes i'd perform with a whale named corky. corky had been pregnant 7 times, but none of her babies hadsurvived. she liked me a lot. looking back, i think she just wanted to be close to a baby because she couldn't have one herself.

my mom didn't seem to like that. and one day when i was about a year old, corky and i were in the same tank. and when they let my mom in, she rammed into corky, trying to get her away from me. and that's when i saw the blood. pouringout of my mom, out of her mouth, shooting out of her blowhole ... i guesswhen she hit corky, the impact severed some arteries in her head.

it took about 45 minutes for her to die, then she was gone and then i saw the people--so many people--taking pictures. a few years later, that's when i metsplash. he came to san diego in 1992, but hebrought his health problems with him. he had epilepsy, and that caused him to havea lot of seizures he was always on some kind of drug, but they still used him in shows anyway, forcing him to perform. a few years afterhe got here, he had a seizure and

slammed into one of the tank's concrete walls i helped hold him up to the surface sowe wouldn't drown. a few years later, another whale namedsumar came to san diego after his mom in orlando rejected him. that happens a lot here, i've noticed. but a few years later, i watched splash die in a nearby tank. and a few years after that, sumar died, too. i get so frustrated. i've pulled trainersinto the water,

broken their bones, and hit them. but they keep trying toartificially inseminate me. they keep making me do tricks for food.to keep me in these concrete tanks and they keep me in these concrete tanks. and everyone around me dies. there has got to be something better than this. there has to be. my name is orkid, and i need your help. please, don't go to seaworld.

go to seaworldofhurt.com to learn more. thanks