And not for the whale, I hope. A senior whale trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, Dawn Brancheau,
has been killed by one of the killer whales today: reports vary, some saying she slipped other saying the whale grabbed her. Now,
Orcinus orcas are big, and beautiful, and strong, and fast; 'situations' are not that uncommon; unfortunately it appears this killer whale called Tillikum - nickname "Tilly" - has a history: in 1991 he was involved in a drowning incident and, more worrying, in 1999 when "
authorities discovered the body of a naked man lying across his back." So, averaging a major incident each decade but then, he's a killer whale! " Incidentally, a few years ago, one of Tilly's offspring,
Ky, was involved in a near fatal accident:
more here, plus details of the earlier 'dead man on back' incident. Within that last link the words of Naomi Rose of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) reflect my own thoughts (bear in mind the quote below was five and a half years ago):
"What all these incidents tell us is what marine parks don't want you to know: captive killer whales are dangerous to people, even those who have worked with these animals for years and years,"... ..."In both episodes with Tillikum, the whale wasn't necessary trying to hurt the unintended victims, but his very size and behavior makes him a danger to people, even if the whale were just 'playing' with the people. Simply put, these are wild animals. Taming them is only an illusion; their natural behaviors will always pose a threat to the people foolish enough to interact with them."
4 comments:
Here here regarding the comments in a box. What is humane about keeping such a beautiful creature in what is basically an indoor pond?
Actually on the subject of whales, Angela (at work) has just returned from two weeks in Cape Verde. She said that there were all these whale watching trips being organised but that there were so many whales you could sit in a bar and go "there's a whale, there's another one, and another," she said one day there were loads of them visible.
brilliant...lovely place...so I've heard! Yes, one of the few places I know nothing about!
Funny, (ish!) reading the various media today, I don't know whether they usually cover this sort of story or whether I just happen to ntice it more once I've posted but they all sem to covering it in so much depth but last night I was ahead of them all! :-)
P.S. Point of order: it's "hear hear"
You're quite right, I was so excited about posting I forgot how to spell.
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