Keiko Killed by Good Intentions

As all the world knows, Keiko, the killer whale who starred in the movie Free Willy has died. After a concerted worldwide campaign, Keiko, was "freed" two years ago from the Mexican Seaquarium. Keiko never adapted to life in the wild; he still expected people to feed him. And why not? That's how he'd earned his living for nearly 20 years–do a trick, get a fish.

As The Little Prince learned from the fox: "Men have forgotten this truth…. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." Succumbing to romantic notions about the "wild," the people in charge of Keiko forgot their responsibility to him. Keiko should have had a comfortable retirement in a nice aquarium instead of dying of pneumonia in an isolated Norwegian fjord.