The photo? Clickbait. Now onto the shit show.

We’ve had a few people asking what can be done for Corky. The best thing we can do for Corky right now is to keep her away from Pritam Singh, Charles Vinick, and Lori Marino.

We are taught as good, decent humans to forgive, but that is not up to us. Forgiveness for these three (and I’m including Singh in his role as master of Sea Shepherd) must come from Kiska and Toki, the whales they have yet to publicly apologize for failing – even though they started a fundraiser in their names after each death.

With that, I must let something out. There is a part of me that feels that I failed Kiska and that I failed Toki. I grapple with it every day. I go for walks in the woods, look up through the canopy of the trees above me and tell them how sorry I am, how very, very sorry I am for failing them. And I cry every time. Real tears, because it’s me alone with nature, not staged tears (called staged because they’re emitted on a stage, like in a theater on an island in Washington state).

Since I first discussed with my associates an effort to get Toki into a newly constructed temporary tank for her health and safety (good job with that Chuck. She died in filth), I’ve experienced a transient ischemic attack and have been placed on Gabapentin to deal with anxiety. I never expected to be here, but I am here, and I have an incredible group of people supporting me.

People may hate me, people may make things up about me, but I am not deterred. If you’re making me the center of your conspiracy, then you’re doing an injustice to the animals you say are defending. I’m nobody. I’m a family man that makes a living writing about lighting fixtures, fake rockwork, and British waterparks. Seriously, if you look up my work, that’s what a lot of it’s about. And I have a blog that barely anyone reads, except when the detractors complain about it and unintentionally increase my hits, so thank you for that, I guess.

What happened in Miami should not be allowed to happen again. This moment, this death, needs to be the turning point for how the industry and its associations operate, how government provides oversight, how indigenous people are treated by the colonizers, and who activists put their faith in to run the show.

Again, I’m nobody. If you really care about the animals, you push for change. It’s easy to see how the industry and the activists/advocates are so similar in many ways. We all love animals. When word gets out that a beloved animal has died, theme park companies announce a new ride. The evening of the day that Toki died, I received an email from Peta (I’m on their press list), which stated: “In 2021, a 17-page federal inspection report revealed that the Miami Seaquarium had failed to provide Lolita with sufficient shade, reduced her food intake against veterinary instruction, and forced her to perform in ways that likely injured her.” After the ownership change, I don’t recall the Seaquarium or Friends of Toki providing adequate shade for the animals in the Whale Bowl, although there was plenty for the staff, FOT and TDC officials, and Jim Irsay when he visited. The fast swimming and the jumps that were happily advertised by Friends of Toki – those are the same behaviors that the 2021 USDA report cited as concerning.

On the one hand, Peta complains about the treatment Toki had under prior ownership, then they glorify Albor, Singh, and Vinick, even though the evidence shows they’re not much better. On the evening that Toki died, the local news interviewed Peta protestors mourning at the park, who announced they would soon descend upon San Diego to protest for Corky’s release. I received the press release from Peta the next day. People were still mourning and Peta was already on to the next flagship orca. Remember when Ingrid Newkirk, Peta’s founder and a devout aethiest stated in March: “It may be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, but Jim Irsay shows it can be done”? I personally believe Irsay was taken for a ride. But Peta went on, just two months ago, to applaud The Dolphin Company and Friends of Toki for taking her home – after their lawsuit from 2016 was dropped due to technicalities because they were suing the prior Seaquarium owner, whose USDA license actually belonged to a rabbit in a New Hampshire kiddy park. Once the Seaquarium sold, the lawsuit was moot, and Peta could put its full media blitz behind supporting the Three Amigos.

On August 18, 2021, the orca Amaya died at SeaWorld San Diego. The news went out on the 19th. On the 20th, the park announced that it had been approved for reopening as a zoo during the state’s Covid shutdown (I reported extensively on the impact of Covid on the state’s attraction industry. I interviewed executive management of the San Diego Zoo and Monterey Bay Aquarium for my pieces because of the high profile and standards at both institutions. Feel free to Google). August 20 was a Friday and Friday news drops tend to bump other stories, like the death of an orca, out of the weekend news cycle. Peta moving on to Corky the night of Toki’s death – I see that as the same strategy, especially late on a Friday. Peta and the industry it fights are one-in-the-same in their tactics.

One last thought, for those of you wasting your time trying to villainize me. I have been told this by multiple sources, and I would advise considering this as hearsay until documentation comes out, and I’m told it does exist:

When Toki died, it is said those in the water with her turned to Charles Vinick and asked what to do next. It is said he raised his arms in the air and told them he had no idea, that it wasn’t his animal.

If that is true, then you have placed a false god, one of many false gods, on a pedestal. How quickly they fall.

To me, Charles Vinick is a small fish. He’s like a herring. You dress him up with sour cream, pickle him, and you’re done. My sights are on something bigger – like a marlin. Like the marlin you can catch on a charter boat out of environmentalist/conservationist Pritam Singh’s Isla Bella resort in Marathon, Florida.

Perhaps, you’d prefer to swim with dolphins. The Isla Bella concierge can also arrange a swim session with the resort’s partner, Dolphin Research Center. I suspect the dolphin swim facility at the new resort on Virginia Key where Pritam will likely be a partner (funny how I actually know the friend of Eduardo – not Pritam – who wants to develop it) will be just as nice.

Anyway, I’m taking a short break to spend with my family. I’ll be watching the ceremony streaming tomorrow (link on the ThemedReality Facebook page). And when I come back, I might be acting a lot more like this guy. Beware.