As it turns out there is a lot more to Orcas than I ever thought I knew! I have been researching these beautiful mammals for about a month now, and what I have discovered has blown me away. 

 I have chosen these animals as my first feature of the moment, and they are a great place to start. This page is dedicated to promote the freedom of Orcas, as I don't believe they belong in captivity. 

   Here are some of the few reasons why:

In the wild there is only one case of injury to a human, in captivity there are over one hundred ( and some very near deaths), as well as four documented deaths. Orcas are intelligent emotional beings, they are not mindless. I question why is there such an increase in aggression if there mental state is truly satisfied in captivity.

   They have a part of the brain we don't! In the section of the brain that hosts emotions and social bonding. Like us they have complex social bonding habits, calfs rarely leave there mothers in their life times. Mass strandings indicate there sense of self as spread between members of the pod, these are very social animals. In captivty calfs are normally split from there Mothers, and pods are split up. This can lead to frustration because Orcas have there own cultures, diet preferences and verbal communication based on there groups.  In effect, they can't communicate properly when thrown together.

 In the wild they swim up to 25km a day. In captivity they do not have sufficent room to swim anything like this distance, and there is no where to escape if things turn aggressive between captive Orcas (Orcas have been known to kill eachother in captivity).

In captivity Orcas only live to about 30. In wild? Females can live to as old as 80. 

I could go on all day with more reasons. I think they are scary, beautiful, mesmorising, intelligent (they even figured how to turn a shark upside down which releases serotinin and makes it comatose!) and aware beings which deserve our  admiration and respect.

 If you would like to help the Orcas, or any other cetacean here is a link to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation page HERE.