We are the producers of “Free Willy”, and our initial campaign to rescue Keiko became a reality when the Earth Island Institute became our partner and facilitated an unprecedented effort to rehabilitate a captive orca and release him back to Iceland. The success of Keiko’s journey is well documented.
Mr. Mark Simmons’ letter of March 25th in the Los Angeles Times is a highly offensive, ignorant and falsified account of Keiko’s journey to freedom with an inflated sense of personal involvement.
1. Mr. Simmons was NOT the director of husbandry for the Keiko project and was fired for his poor judgment and performance.
2. Keiko was rehabilitated, taught to hunt for fish and swam into the wild. (SEE: “Keiko the Untold Story of the star of Free Willy”)
3. Keiko was never “savagely” chased by “wild counterparts” and certainly NEVER ignored by the “humans charged with setting him free.” These are lies.
4. It is arrogant and delusional for Mr. Simmons to make reference to Keiko’s final months in Iceland or his time in Norway. Simmons had long since been fired and hasn’t a clue what he’s talking about.
5. Keiko was never “ignored”, nor did he have “chronic negative stress” or “suffered greatly at length”. False and absurd.
6. Mr. Simmons’ commentary is predictable for someone whose job at Ocean Embassy was to capture wild dolphins and traffic them around the world. He helped capture dozens of dolphins from Solomon Islands from 2003 to 2011, which were sold to Dubai, Singapore and China.
Mr. Simmons is a typical hypocrite in the insidious industry that destroys the lives of wild dolphins and whales for the sake of money.
