Dr Visser said the Amsterdam judges had overlooked aspects of the law and made errors such as regarding Loro Parque, where Morgan is being held, as an educational zoo when it was in fact an amusement park.
Mr Simon started his career as a newspaper cartoonist, then produced TV shows before helping to develop the TV series The Simpsons. He soon fell out with creator Matt Groening but his payout is understood to earn him millions of dollars each year.
He has previously helped the anti-whaling organisation Sea Shepherd buy a new ship to take on Japanese whaling ships in the Southern Ocean and funded a facility for rescuing and retraining stray dogs.
Mr Simon said the appeal was probably the orca's last chance to be returned to the wild.
''Quite simply, Morgan, an intelligent, highly social animal that used to swim 100km a day in the wild, has been illegally abducted by the captivity industry and is now forced to perform idiotic tricks in a bathtub,'' he said.
Dr Visser said she had personally seen Morgan attacked by other orca at Loro Parque. The orca was covered in bite marks and had lost the top third of some teeth from chewing on the concrete walls of her tank, she said. The park denied any problems.
