# WARNING: Killer Whale is Not Your Friend
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 22, 1999, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276 "1999-09-22T16:57:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/1 "1999-09-22T16:57:00Z")
This is the best laugh I’ve had all week:
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19990920/ts/life\_whale\_2.html](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19990920/ts/life_whale_2.html)
For a minute I thought I was reading _The Onion._
My question–is someone going to be deterred by a warning sign if they aren’t deterred by the simple fact that this creature is known as a KILLER WHALE?
Natural selection in action, if you ask me.
Dr. J
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### Author:  [@Globe-trotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Globe-trotter)
#### Post date: [September 23, 1999, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/2 "1999-09-23T05:01:00Z")
Can you say, Darwin Awards candidate? 😉
* * *
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
Alexandre Dumas the Younger (1824-1895)
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### Author:  [@Bluepony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluepony)
#### Post date: [September 23, 1999, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/3 "1999-09-23T05:07:00Z")
As I mentioned in previous posts. Yes, there is a God, and he does put chlorine in the genetic pool, every now and then…
* * *
“…send lawyers, guns, and money…”
```
Warren Zevon
```
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### Author:  [@CatInHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatInHat)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/4 "1999-09-22T18:11:00Z")
Does Sea World sell plush toy sharks, too? Just you wait, it’s only a matter of time before someone jumps into a shark tank and gets eaten, and Sea World gets sued because Sea World portrayed sharks as “huggable, kissable, human-loving, friendly.”
Damn! Do these people fondle grizzly bears, too?
* * *
The Cat In The Hat
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### Author:  [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/5 "1999-09-22T18:15:00Z")
Methinks someone watched _Free Willy_ one too many times.
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### Author:  [@kellibelli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellibelli)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/6 "1999-09-22T18:47:00Z")
Gee whiz. its a _killer_ whale.
D’uh!
Of course they didnt have to post signs…
do they post signs at the grand canyon telling people if they jump in they could get hurt?
Lawyers! The cockroaches of society.
_No offense meant to any lawyers here on the board._
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### Author:  [@Diver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diver)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/7 "1999-09-22T19:37:00Z")
What’s really hard for me to believe is that the guy’s parents are suing SeaWorld. The basis for the suit is that SeaWorld sells cuddly stuffed Killer Whales, so obviously the dead guy thought the Orca was harmless.
The guy hid untill after the park closed, evaded security, scaled two fences, took his clothes off, jumped into 50 degree water with a KILLER Wale and it’s SeaWorld’s fault
No greed here is there?
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### Author:  [@Kakkerlak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kakkerlak)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/8 "1999-09-22T20:25:00Z")
Two counts of liability, one of negligence, one of misrepresentation.
I don’t think the plaintiffs have a prayer with any theory of negligence or liability. The barriers in place and restricted access to the pool shield the park very well.
Public swimming pools have lost negligence lawsuits mostly when lifeguards _are_ on duty. They lose on grounds that the lifeguards are ill-trained or inattentive.
The inventive part of the suit is the idea of misrepresentation… I think the jury is going to get a trip to Sea World to find out for themselves whether the daily show makes them want to go swim with an orca.
If Sea World features trainers riding on the whale, an argument might be made that the whale is an “attractive nuisance”, but the other factors (trespassing being chief among them) should be enough to trump that argument.
I’ve been very close to a wild orca, with myself in a very small sailboat… but she didn’t scare me as much as juries do.
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### Author:  [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/9 "1999-09-22T20:51:00Z")
I saw this in my paper this morning and was going to post it myself. I especially like the quote from the Sea World General Manager:
“This is an incredibly unwise thing to do.”
The gift of understatement can be such a pleasure.
So what next? We have stuffed lions and crocodiles, cute cuddly tigers, and fuzzy bears. Does _anyone_ think that the real animals are harmless? Kids maybe, but not an adult!
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### Author:  [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/10 "1999-09-22T22:29:00Z")
Duh.
* * *
Yer pal,
Satan
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### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/11 "1999-09-22T22:44:00Z")
I heard that there is an outfit in Germany that sells toilet-brushes. With Hitler’s face at the brush end!! Guess what _that_ is supposed to mean? 😉
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### Author:  [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/12 "1999-09-22T22:59:00Z")
One thing I don’t understand: I didn’t even think the orca did the guy in. I’m not denying that these critters are big, fast, powerful predators, but I thought the deal was, the man (he was in his late 20s, right?) just jumped in and drowned or got hypothermia. (50 degrees sounds pretty cold, at least when you’re immersed in it; not much like a swimming pool.)
Anyway, I may have my facts wrong; I heard a report on the radio that might have been too preliminary. In either case, Sea World is about as much at fault as my unborn grand-niece.
The think that irks me about the claim that Sea World misrepresented the killer whale, is that people trying to protect wildlife have been working their heinies off for years to try and give predators some kind of image the people (voters) can relate to positively. The World Wildlife Fund picked a giant panda for its image because people think their cuddly. But the WWF protects all sorts of less-cuddly but still biologically important species. The hope is that dollars that come from panda huggers will eventually make their way into education about biodiversity, tropical forest devastation, etc.
Sea World was probably just trying to do the same thing; people aren’t going to want to save monsters - they want to save intelligent, friendly creatures with cute names. Eventually, the environmentalists hope the average person will realize that all animals deserve respect, regardless of where they lie on the timid/vicious axis (or the cuddly/slimy axis, I suppose). It seems like the idea of this lawsuit is, if you point out the classically nice things about a creature, then you no longer have to respect or understand the creature (or stay the heck out of its home). Either orcas are harmless toys or they are monsters.
Phooey.
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### Author:  [@Shadowfox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfox)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/13 "1999-09-22T23:25:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Can you say, Darwin Awards Candidate?
It did!
[http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin1999-18.html](http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin1999-18.html)
Shadowfox
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 23, 1999, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/14 "1999-09-23T00:11:00Z")
Obviously, this moron’s stupidity was the product of genetics.
He’s described as a “drifter.” Isn’t that a nice way to say homeless? If he was a vagrant, I almost wonder if he was under the influence of something.
I do find it curious, though, that the whale had been involved in a previous fatal incident. Huh.
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### Author:  [@timmar68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/timmar68)
#### Post date: [September 23, 1999, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/15 "1999-09-23T04:49:00Z")
Sometimes sign don’t matter anyway, folks. The brother of a girl I used to work with was a fieldhand. Some farm machinery broke down and was very dangerous, but they were unable to move it and get it fixed at the time, so they told the fieldhand to leave it alone, posted signs (notice I said “SIGNS”) all over it, put a fence around it, placed many, many signs on the fence warning that it was dangerous and the fieldhand used it anyway. He lost both of his arms, sued the farmer and WON! I still can’t believe it to this day.
* * *
MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!
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### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [September 23, 1999, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/16 "1999-09-23T11:02:00Z")
Make sure you check out that Darwin Awards page, it’s priceless 🙂 [www.darwinawards.com](http://www.darwinawards.com)
I remember another stupid story that really happened, also off DA. Couple of Korean tourists visiting the Krueger National Park (RSA). Tourbus drives around, stopping whenever a Kodak Moment comes along because of some animal crossing the road. After a while, the bus driver spots a pack of lions lounging in the shade. Lions are rather lazy animals, and like most cats sleep a lot (up to 20 hrs a day). They hunt at night, and rest at day. Most people know this, and generally respect the lions decision to schedule his day like this.
Not this Korean dude.
Annoyed by the fact that the lazy lions are going to be just a few brown lumps of meat on his photo’s, he _EXITS_ the bus, walks over to the lions, _KICKS A FEW LIONS_ in order to get some mobility out of them, and starts heading back to the bus, filled with astonished tourists, including his entire family.
He didn’t quite make it to the bus.
Bet some people got a few kick-ass photographs though 🙂
Asians. They’ll do ANYTHING for a pretty snapshot… (not a racist thing, mind you).
Coldfire
* * *
“You know how complex women are”
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
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### Author:  [@Temujin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temujin)
#### Post date: [September 23, 1999, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/17 "1999-09-23T11:15:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Asians. They’ll do ANYTHING for a pretty snapshot… (not a racist thing, mind you).
Great material, Krusty! Me so solly.
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### Author:  [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)
#### Post date: [September 23, 1999, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/18 "1999-09-23T21:13:00Z")
I don’t know about them Darwin Awards. There is one story in there, “confirmed true by Darwin”, that _reeks_ of urban legend. [http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin1995-01.html](http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin1995-01.html)
Sorry, I don’t care if Charles flew here from the Beagle on a helicopter to personally convince me, I still find it hard to believe. Undercurrents in a well? Chickens that can swim? Kooky Egyptians dying to entertain us?
Other stuff on the Darwin Awards is pretty plausible, but sometimes it’s not very Darwininan. Sometimes they have ones like, “Stupid person shoots and kills friend”. Uhhh, didn’t the stupid person survive? Survival of those whose friends are the fittest?
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 24, 1999, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warning-killer-whale-is-not-your-friend/8276/19 "1999-09-24T06:05:00Z")
Uh, not that I think the parents are in the right, but…
Have any of you been to Sea World? They do sell (for a few hundred bucks) the opportunity to have supervised swims with their animals. I don’t know for sure if the killer whales are included in these programs, but it seems that if they do in fact sell this opporunity, than there is an attractive nuisance element for the family to cite in their suit.
But I do hope they get thrown out of court…
* * *
Sue from El Paso
[members.aol.com/majormd/index.html](http://members.aol.com/majormd/index.html)