Last baby Orca born in SeaWorld captivity dies
The last whale to be born in captivity at SeaWorld has died due to “serious case of pneumonia”.
The three-month old killer whale, named Kayara died surrounded by SeaWorld staff, who were keeping her 24-hour watch for the last three days due to an initial infection.
In a statement, the Orlando-based company said, “Despite their best efforts, her health continued to decline and she passed away earlier today”.
They went on to explain why they removed Kayara from her mom, “the expert veterinary and animal care teams made the decision to bring Kyara to the husbandry pool at the Animal Hospital to ensure she received the necessary hydration and treatment.
“Additionally, Kyara had not been receiving the daily nutrition that she needed, so the teams supplemented that nutrition through hand-feeding multiple times each day”.
It may take several weeks to conduct a necropsy.
Animal rights activists, PETA have responded with a tweet simple stating that Kayara “never got to swim in the ocean”.
BREAKING: Kyara has died at SeaWorld at just 3 months old. She never got to swim in the ocean. https://t.co/ok0uWExamS #BoycottSeaWorldDay pic.twitter.com/iqnJGqkW2l
— PETA (@peta) July 24, 2017
According to the statement, the SeaWorld team’s attention now turns to the rest of the orca pod, especially Takara, to provide the care and attention they need.
Last year, SeaWorld announced it would phase out killer whale shows.
