Posted on 02/24/2010 12:56:56 PM PST by trapman
The Orange County Sheriff's Office has confirmed a Sea World employee died Wednesday after being attacked by a killer whale. Emergency officials arrived just before 2:00 pm Wednesday (02/24/2010) and found the person unresponsive. Witnesses are reporting that the victim was a trainer who was dragged into the tank and drowned by the whale.
(Excerpt) Read more at bovinescatologist.com ...
They call them “killer whales”
And still you’re surprised
The only surprising aspect to this is that it hasn’t happened before now. We took our kids to Sea World when they were young. I sat in the stands and cried during the show. It’s not right.
My guess is that the whale was playing and pushing her around and didn’t realize she didn’t have a blowhole. Hard to imagine it was done on purpose. (Or on porpoise)
My guess is that the whale was playing and pushing her around and didn’t realize she didn’t have a blowhole. Hard to imagine it was done on purpose. (Or on porpoise)
5 threads on the same story in 30 minutes. Doesn’t anybody do a search???
.....Bob
Actually it has. In 1999 this very same whale killed a man that had that broken into the park.
Strange that we despise traing bears and lions [as in “dancing bears”] but still allow training seafaring mammels.
nope
FREE WILLY!!
The man reportedly died of hypothermia. Water temp in the pool is 55 degrees.
How can you fine anything humorous in this? Good Lord !
Same whale was also blamed for drowning a trainer up in Canada in 1991, a year before he was sold to Sea World
Another article, same incident.
The same whale has killed twice before. The US Humane Society is trying to get ban on Orcas in entertainment.
Sounds like an idea.
Certainly you have to feel badly for the trainer and her family, but these are NOT Labrador Retrievers!!!
comment from Susan Berta from Orca Network; We just heard that Tillikum, an Icelandic orca, is the whale involved in the trainer’s death at Orlando SeaWorld today. An intruder to Orlando SW was found dead in Tillikum’s tank in 1999, and Tillikum was also responsible for the death of a Trainer at SeaLand Canada in 1991.
background on Tillicum - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilikum_%28whale%29#Tilikum
From another article.
There have been several previous attacks on whale trainers at SeaWorld parks.
In November 2006, trainer Kenneth Peters, 39, was bitten and held underwater several times by a 7,000-pound killer whale during a show at SeaWorld's San Diego park.
He escaped with a broken foot. The 17-foot-long orca who attacked him was the dominant female of SeaWorld San Diego's seven killer whales. She had attacked Peters two other times, in 1993 and 1999.
In 2004, another whale at the company's San Antonio park tried to hit one of the trainers and attempted to bite him. He also escaped.
In December, a whale drowned a trainer at a Spanish zoo.
At the Orlando SeaWorld, the body of a naked man was found scratched, bruised and draped over a 5-ton orca named Tilikum in July 1999. Daniel Dukes, 27, reportedly made his way past security at SeaWorld, remaining in the park after it had closed. Wearing only his underwear, Dukes either jumped, fell or was pulled into the frigid water of Tilikum's huge tank.
An autopsy ruled that he died of hypothermia in the 50-degree water. But they also said it appeared Tilikum bit the man and tore off his swimming trunks, likely believing he was a toy to play with.
Even if the whale is “friendly” or “tame” it still weighs 7,000 lbs and really has no way of knowing its own strength.
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