Chicago
Three recent whale deaths at the Shedd Aquarium resurrect the institution's sordid past.
Peekachu, 23-year-old female beluga, died two weeks after arriving on August 25. Rain, a 20-year-old female whale, died on September 2. Beethoven, a 34-year-old male, also died on September 2.
In 1991, a year and a half after the Shedd flew its first beluga whales to Chicago in the belly of a cargo plane, they died.
In response, activist Steve Hindi staged "whale shows" with inflatable orcas positioned so crowds watching the performing marine animals at the Shedd saw his alternative show.
"At the time we held the whale shows in 1992, two Shedd white whales had died 15 minutes after being given the parasite drug levamisol, unapproved for whales, by veterinarian Jeff Boehm," Hindi told me.
"In the show, we had a mad doctor give an injection to a huge inflatable whale whose tail began shaking and as he flipped over dead. Just like in rodeos, marine 'abusement' parks hide the real causes of death from the public."
With banners on telescoping poles that said "Whales are Dying to Amuse You," Hindi's "show" reached many and made the nightly news.
"We were able to explain to many people that in the wild, marine animals don't tail walk, they don't eat dead fish--they're predators not scavengers--they swim 50 to 100 miles a day and they don't live and breed with random animals outside their pods in chlorine pools," he said. "It is no different than human jails."
On TV at the time, Hindi debated Ken Ramirez, the Shedd's vice president for animal training at the time who Hindi called "a circus trainer in a wet suit."
Change of Heart
Hindi's anti "Jails for Whales" sentiments represented a 180 degree turnaround for the activist who founded the iconic animal rights group ago Shark [Showing Animals Respect and Kindness] more than two decades ago.
"I was a fisherman and shark hunter. In fact my fishing successes were written up in magazines such as Fishing Facts and Midwest Outdoors, while my shark hunting was written up in the New York Daily News," he told me. "I would go out in a 17 foot boat and get a seven-and-a-half foot mako shark while the guys in 30 foot boats got nothing."
Hearing his anecdotes, one could never charge that Hindi did not know "whereof" he spoke.
"I went on a fishing trip and at one point captured a 200 pound mako shark," he recounted. "I shot it and stabbed it in the back of the head with a knife which is how you kill them and realized I didn't enjoy it anymore."
In fact he regretted it.
By the next year, after witnessing more gratuitous animal deaths for nothing but sport and entertainment, Hindi had a change of heart. "I felt like I'd been working on the wrong side".." He became an activist.
As Hindi's group, Shark exposes cockfighting, rodeos and other animal"sports," some in Chicago probably wish his alternative whale shows were still being staged at the Shedd.
(Article changed on Sep 08, 2026 at 1:53 PM EDT)
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