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Keiko died of malnutrition and pneumonia in Norway in 2003. After the success of the Free Willy movies, activists strived to release Keiko, in hopes that he be returned to his home pod off of Iceland, where he had been captured in 1976. His pod was unable to be located, and seeing as how he had depended on the human contact he had grown to know and love for 20+ years, he continued to seek out companionship from his trainers and handlers. The entire "release" process, from 1998 to 2003 when he died took a total of 5 years, but he was never actually "released", until 2002. In reality he only spent 18 months in the wild before he passed away. In many peoples opinions, sure proof that it is cruel to release a human-dependent animal into the wild after relying on man for comfort and survival for so long. He was nearly 28 years old. Many feel he should have been left at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, where he had lived for a few years after being taken out of the Reino Aventura Ammusement park in Mexico. It is in Oregon where he lived in a massive saltwater tank and regained his health before his release.

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