The staff at SeaWorld Orlando has announced that the whale will not be put down even though this is the third deadly incident the whale has been involved in. Relatives of the deceased said that they do not wish the whale to put down. In a typical situation when an animal kills a human, the animal is put down, but getting rid of a 12,000 pound mammal is a little more difficult.
A killer whale pulled SeaWorld trainer, Dawn Brancheau into the water Wednesday by her ponytail at SeaWorld at the Orlando, Florida location and was killed. It occurred just before a 2 pm performance.
SeaWorld has asked that if anyone has the incident on video to please turn it in so that they can perhaps determine if it could have been avoided.
Initial reports were that Dawn Brancheau slipped and fell into the tank, but now SeaWorld and eye witnesses are saying that the trainer leaned over the whale and her ponytail brushed the whale. The whale pulled on her ponytail and then grabbed her by the waist. The whale flung her around in the water violently until she apparently drowned. Click here for a video about that story.
Dawn Brancheau, 40 was pronounced dead immediately afterwards.
The bull orca whale involved is named Tilikum or Telly and has been involved in two other deaths in the last 20 years, one of which was a trainer. It is about 30 years old and weighs 12,300-pound. See the video below for the full story.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that in November of 2006, a trainer was bitten and held underwater by a 7,000-pound whale during a SeaWorld performance in San Diego. He survived with only a broken foot.
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Source: Times Online
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Comments
If the whale took a human life and is this aggressive it needs to be put down!!
its a whale...what the hell do you expect. It's suppose to be in the ocean, not in captivity. That woman knew what she was doing when she took the job.
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