Yeah, I thought of that too. It’s not inconceivable that we’re looking at a sort of cetacean Lennie here.
File under “Shit Happens”. Hundreds of people spend millions of hours around whales. One had an accident and died. C’est la vie.
Which doesn’t mean there is wisdom in keeping large cetaceans in captivity, that is is safe or humane or that operations like SeaWorld are for the public good, whatever that means.
The orca, or “killer whale,” is actually a dolphin. I wish we could get away from the “killer whale” name, which implies that it is more deadly than a lot of other sea creatures. They are social creatures (as are all dolphins), with pods (familial groups), and they are intelligent. This is why they can be trained to do tricks to please their human captors, but the bottom line is they are wild animals. Who knows why this one orca did what he did – maybe he saw the trainer as a plaything. You cannot take a wild animal from it’s natural environment and expect it to behave according to human desires and specifications. Anyone who is involved with caring for and training any animal, but especially wild animals, must recognize that there is a risk.
“He kept smashing his face into my fist!”
[Topical Neko Case]
[/Topical Neko Case]
One expects the occasional fatality or non-fatal injury - it’s actually reasonable for this to be feeding mishap. Better that than a whale going rogue on a handler.
:smack:
How could I have confused Sealand with SeaWorld ?
The Sealand whale pen was simply a floating plywood corral.
Scientifically speaking, orcas are still whales.
And it is more deadly than a lot of other sea creatures given that it is an apex predator. I remember a video of a killer whale killing a white shark and feeding it to her calf a number of years ago.
sigh. I feel an unexplicable guilt about this - Friday I got into an argument with someone about whether or not Orcas have ever killed people. I didn’t want to be proven right like this!
I don’t think it matters why three people around this whale died, they need to either release it to the wild (and hope for the best) or put it down. A zoo wouldn’t keep a tiger that was involved in three deaths, so this isn’t much different.
Yeah, a dog that kills someone gets put down pretty quickly, doesn’t it? This is the whale’s third alleged killing.
I see they released the victim’s name. And I think I worked with her back when I directed a Shamu photo shoot. I can’t say for sure, because a lot of the female trainers look similar when they pull their hair back, but… fuck.
I just wanted to step in for a moment and speak for a moment about these trainers.
I don’t know what kind of image people have when they think of these trainers: that they’re neophytes that don’t understand the nature of these animals, that they’re whip-cracking performers that only care about the show or that they’re callous captors that care nothing for the welfare of these animals.
Over the whole time I worked with them, the most consistent attitude I witnessed was a consistent concern for the welfare of these animals. And the relationship between trainer and animal married the affection I’ve had for my pet combined with the respect and discretion one would have for encountering an animal in the wild. And those trainers are like a family. Whatever anybody else feels about this whole dustup, I can’t imagine what that crew is going through.
Perhaps, but dogs don’t have the ‘gentle, majestic, misunderstood, beautiful sea creature’ thing going for them.
Plus its secured with zero possibility of escaping and targeting the general public, and only trained handlers have access, who know and accept the risks of contact with a creature that could kill them by accident without even thinking.
In other words, not some random dog who was let loose and chewed up a kid down the street.
For my money… These people understand the risks, which are certainly non zero when dealing with a powerful predator, especially one that inhabits an environment humans are ill suited to operate it.
I would hope SeaWorld is able to release it rather than put it down. The latter option would be very sad regardless of the killer whale’s human toll; there are fewer than 200,000 orcas on the planet and the blame for this is on the whale’s keepers (and to a lesser extent, those of us - myself included - who visit SeaWorld).
There is no comparing a killer whale to a dog in the most cynical sense, either: if an orca is sold outright, one is sure to be upwards of a half-million dollar investment to whatever facility buys it. Then add the enormous cost of housing, feeding and training the orca. A killer whale is worth more than the average human life in quantifiable terms to whomever owns it, assuming the owner can sustain the PR aftermaths that stem from events like this one. I’m sure Tillikum’s previous owners fought tooth and nail to keep him, even if they ended up trading him off.
Although I give SeaWorld the benefit of the doubt v. the eyewitness reports, why don’t we know if police are reviewing actual footage of the accident?
Chris Rock/
That tiger wasn’t acting crazy when it ate that guy. It was acting crazy when it was riding a bicycle around and wearing a Hitler hat. The tiger just started acting like a Tiger.
/Chris Rock
Didn’t someone write a sci-fi novvel once where dolphins secretly hated humans, but were so smart they never let it show? Near shore they would push people to the beach, but if they came across someone way far away from any possible witnesses, they would kill them ruthlessly,
It was featured as a Darwin Award.
I recall a short story where the dolphins were like that. They also raped sharks.
Well who doesn’t?
Is that the more hardcore version of “jumping the shark”?
“Boy, that series really raped the shark last season!”
Sooo… Statistically speaking, are you more likely to die to a killer whale? or from driving a Toyota?
Depends if you are on dry land or not I expect. Car accidents are rare at sea.
Even rarer at large cetacean tanks in aquariums.
Animals do not exist for the purpose of profit/entertainment. Unless they are endangered, they should not be kept in captivity. Further, when a tragedy like this occurs the animal involved may be destroyed. The whole concept is wrong.
Big cats, elephants, killer whales and the like are all exploited under the guise of “awareness”. Profit is first, the species may somehow benefit, but probably not.