Seaworld trainer attacked and killed..

[draggar]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/24/kil...ex.html?hpt=T2

A killer whale jumped in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist.

All in front of an audience during a show.

[Green_Fairy]

wow that's sad...but i'm kinda surprised stuff like that doesn't happen more often. i mean, they're wild animals. no matter how much you train them...they're always wild animals.

[Fufu487]

Ya thats too bad. I feel for the trainer and her family. Killer whales tend to be violent by nature. We put them in these little tanks and expect them to happily do tricks for us. This incident was not the fault of the trainer or the animal. Just unfortunate

[draggar]

There's been one whale that's gotten aggressive towards the trainers - no one gets in the water with him.

Even his son has been showing aggression.

Edit:

Interesting - Sea World is saying that she slipped and fell into the tank and drowned.
Witnesses are saying the killer whale jumped up and grabbed her.

This is the same whale that killed a tresspasser who went into his tank in 1999.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yep. That's the same whale, and the trespasser was a mentally unbalanced cousin of mine. He evidently snuck into the tank after hours, probably had some idea about "swimming with" the whales. No telling, really, there may have been drugs and possibly mental illness involved. Honestly, I didn't know him personally, even though he was my cousin. Just have heard what other people told me.

These animals are not called "fluffy, cuddly whales." They are called "killer whales" for a reason. I mean, even dolphins can get aggressive and try to kill you. This is not the first trainer to be killed by one of these things, and during a show, too.

Not my idea of entertainment. And it sends a very dangerous message.

[AdminAssistant]

I just hope that the whale isn't euthanized for this. For once, I agree with PETA. These aren't circus animals, these are wild creatures.

[TelephoneAngel]

Interesting - Sea World is saying that she slipped and fell into the tank and drowned.
Witnesses are saying the killer whale jumped up and grabbed her.

This is the same whale that killed a tresspasser who went into his tank in 1999.

I also noticed that discrepancy, surely the witnesses know what they saw?

[Bright_Star]

A killer whale kills someone & they wonder why? They're not called "KILLER whales' for nothing. I feel for the family of the trainer that got killed but at the same time people MUST understand that animals such as these aren't robots programed to do what humans want. They're wild animals who can & do react unpredictably.
You have to respect animals even animals that seem all cute and cuddly such as domestic dogs & cats. They are independent creatures with minds of their own who will get on the offensive & can cause lethal harm if they feel threatened in any way.
Humans have that annoying trait where they feel they can dominate all creatures & then get all bent out of shape when "fluffy" takes a bite at them.

[AnaKhouri]

Apparently this particular whale is a serial killer whale- he has been involved in three deaths now.

What I wonder is, after the first death, why was he kept in the show? If I was a trainer I would not want to work with a whale that has been proven aggressive. Better to keep in a tank so people can look at him instead of interacting.

[Flying Grype]

I don't agree with PETA, actually. PETA would have all the aquariums release their dolphins and whales back into the wild, and that never works. Keiko, the whale from Free Willy, was released but never re-integrated into his pack, and ended up being fed and cared for by trainers and vets in the wild. He was underweight and he died in 2003 after a bout of pneumonia.

If whales are going to be kept in captivity for the education of humans, they need to be allowed to live naturally and have enough room to do so. The whales that are currently in captivity need this whether or not whales continue to be kept captive. The circus shows and acrobatics with human trainers need to be abolished, because that doesn't educate anyone about animals or how to respect them.

[TelephoneAngel]

on sky uk they are showing a clip of a killer whale with trainers, I am unclear whether it was the whale in question with the trainer in question but assuming it is, the whale in the clip being shown is ill, you can see it clearly.

[Flying Grype]

What are you seeing that makes you think it's ill?

[TelephoneAngel]

It appears to be swimming strangely, not floating then moving forward with purpose, but thrashing itself forwards constantly with its tail swirling up the water, as if with difficulty while leaning to one side which would be unatural while trying to swim forwards.

if anyoneone else sees the clip i would like their opinion on this.

There is a second one visible in the clip which glides forwards at a straight angle only flicking its tail occassionally which is how all the others have swum that i have observed either in zoos or on nature programmes.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I seemed to remember that whale being involved in the death of another trainer some years back and I looked it up, and yeah. Same whale.

You know, I can see them finding the dead guy in the tank after the fact and not being sure about what exactly happened, although I'm a little curious that there is no security camera footage. No clue what D....you know what, screw it, it's not like I'm protecting his identity, the guy made the fucking Darwin Awards. No clue what Danny was doing in the park. No clue if he was was trying to commit suicide, no clue if he rubbed himself down with a porkchop, no clue if he was antagonizing the whale. So I can kind of see the park hesitating to mark the whale as dangerous...well, any more dangerous than any other whale. Saying an orca is not dangerous is like saying one stick of dynamite is no more dangerous than any other stick of dynamite.

However, I would think the incident would at least make them heighten their awareness of a potential situation.

Now I learn that yeah, this was indeed the same whale that killed ANOTHER trainer earlier on. Which by all accounts the park tried to pass off as "playing".

So basically, they are using a whale that not only may have killed a trespasser, but DID kill an earlier trainer in front of a pack of witnesses in a fucking SHOW???

Seriously?

Okay. Mind blown. I suspect every lawyer within a hundred mile radius is walking around with a tent in their perfectly creased pants. At least, I hope they are. Because someone needs to get sued down to their second layer of skin. This is negligence to the point of being criminal.

I used to work at the zoo here in town. I didn't work with animals. But I often wondered, as did many of my coworkers, why the zoo felt the need to keep extremely dangerous animals such as african elephants and black rhinos. I know what they were paying the keepers, and belive me, it wasn't worth it. We were lucky in that tragedy was averted the times we had close calls. Why keep dangerous breeds when safer ones would do? Why not Indian Elephants and White Rhinos?

[Flying Grype]

Why keep dangerous breeds when safer ones would do? Why not Indian Elephants and White Rhinos?

I think the African elephants and the black rhinos are rarer in the wild, which means the more captive specimens there are, the better. In the case of a responsible zoo, nobody's making these animals do tricks, and nobody's going into the cages with the animals more than is necessary for the animals' well-being.

The keepers do it because they are experts in a particular kind of animal, and they know the risks.