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Article: Keepers fear Keiko the killer whale and movie star is victim of his own fame
- Article from:
- AP Worldstream
- Article date:
- September 5, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightProvided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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00-00-0000
Dateline: HALSA, Norway
It's a misty Thursday morning and Keiko the killer whale is alone,
a rare sight since Norwegians discovered the "Free Willy" movie star
in a fjord and flocked to pet and play with him.
It was stardom from three "Free Willy" movies that set the campaign
in motion to reintroduce the six-ton orca to the open sea after he
spent much of his life in captivity.
But six weeks after he was released from his pen in Iceland, his keepers
are worried that Keiko is becoming a victim of his own celebrity and
are begging people to leave him alone, so that the dlrs 20 million
project to return him to the wild can continue.
"We are just ...