An orca who lived with the star of the movie Free Willy has been captured on video swimming in circles in a small tank at a popular amusement park.
Animal activist Phil Demers, who worked at the park, claims that Kiska has been living there for the past 12 years and has been completely alone since 2011, which is considered torture for social creatures like orcas.
The killer whale was previously captured banging her head against the walls of the tank.
Kiska was captured in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1979 when she was just three years old.
She was taken to an aquarium in Iceland where she lived with four other young orcas, including Keiko, the star of the Hollywood film Free Willy.
Shortly thereafter, Kiska was sold along with Keiko, to MarineLand.
Kiska gave birth to five calves at the park, but all of them died at a young age, an activist has claimed.
Demers, who is the co-founder of the NGO UrgentSeas, posted a video of Kiska on the organisation's TikTok page, which has received over 6.7million views.
He claims that the video shows Kiska's loneliness and suffering.
Demers said, "As someone who has worked with Kiska, watching her environment and health deteriorate as it has over the past decade has been heartbreaking and gut-wrenching."
The video, which was taken from a drone above the park, shows Kiska swimming in circles in her small tank, which Demers claims is tantamount to torture for social beings such as orcas.
He is calling for Kiska and other captive whales and dolphins to be retired to the ocean.
Demers ran into trouble with MarineLand when he launched a campaign to re-home a walrus he worked with named Smooshi.
MarineLand filed a $1.5million lawsuit against Demers for trespassing and planning to kidnap the 800lb walrus in 2012.
Demers filed a counterclaim for defamation and abuse of process. Following lengthy negotiations, both parties agreed to drop the legal action and re-house Smooshi and her calf Koyuk to a new location.
He hopes that his advocacy campaign will highlight the plight of individual whales and lead to retiring dolphins and whales back to the ocean and ending their senseless captivity.
He believes that with enough attention, this can and should be made possible for all captive whales and dolphins.
Free Willy star Keiko died of pneumonia in 2003 in a bay in Norway, aged 27.
MarineLand has said that Kiska is too old to be safely moved, and a 2013 bill passed into law in Ontario makes it illegal to bring another orca into the province, even temporarily under strict conditions as a companion.
