A killer whale at the SeaWorld amusement park in central Florida killed a trainer on Wednesday, a sheriff's spokesman said.
"She apparently slipped and fell into the tank and was fatally injured by one of the whales," Orange County Sheriff's spokesman Jim Solomons said.
The 40-year-old trainer was dead when rescue officials arrived, he said.
Media reports said the orca at the park's Shamu Stadium grabbed the woman by the waist, thrashed her about and dragged her underwater.
The trainer was killed in the whale holding area just before the start of a public performance and the stadium was immediately evacuated.
Dan Brown, president of SeaWorld Orlando, said the victim was one of the park's most experienced animal trainers.
There were conflicting reports about how the incident occurred. The Orlando Sentinel quoted a spectator as saying the whale came up from the water and grabbed the trainer by her waist. The sheriff's official said preliminary accounts indicated she slipped and fell in, but that was still under investigation.
The Florida park is owned by the Blackstone Group, a private equity company that also owns part of the Universal Orlando theme park.
A spokesman for SeaWorld in San Diego, California, said killer whale shows have been suspended following the death in Orlando.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the orca involved in Wednesday's incident, named Tillikum but popularly known as "Tilly," has a controversial past.
The whale was blamed for the drowning of one of his trainers in 1991 while he was performing at Sealand of the Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia, the newspaper said.
Sold to SeaWorld as a stud in 1992, the whale was involved in a second incident when authorities discovered the body of a naked man lying across his back in July 1999.
Authorities said the man, who had either snuck into SeaWorld after hours or hidden in the park until it closed, most likely drowned after suffering hypothermia in the 55-degree (12.7 C) water.
A former contractor with SeaWorld told the Sentinel that Tillikum is typically kept isolated from SeaWorld's other killer whales and that trainers were not allowed to get in the water with him because of his history.
____________________________________________________________________
Montecore(Seigfreid and Roy's White Tiger) should have given Tillikum a clinic, on how to properly take your human to safety. Given there was a lot of water, I am thinking she slipped, much like Christian Walliser earlier this year, when he was mauled by his tiger's. It surely can't be because Tillikum had any past issues. After all aren't they all loving "Willies"? Maybe some of that elephant PTS has gotten into the water system in Florida? Why do people try to pretend that our magnificent animal's are something that they are not. They are not "cute and cuddly". That's a puppy or a kitten. Nothing else.
Posts
8 comments:
I knew I could count on you to put it in perspective. Thank you
The incident happened at 1:48 PM and by 3 PM in was a major news story in Orlando, stations breaking into regular programing, etc. Nobody really knew anything and there were a variety of stories being reported. As of 9 PM the real facts have not come out (according to friends who work with the whales).
What really got me was how fast the HSUS and their like jumped on the story with their "facts". There were a load of "whale experts" stating the whole thing was caused by the whale's unhappiness in captivity. One expert from the U. of FL was "fair and balanced". He admitted he wasn't big on captive orcas but said that people use to shot killer whales but since the original Shamu, now want to protect them.
Ooh wait. I think she was confused. She was under the impression that it was not a killer whale, but instead, the lesser known cuddler whale.
I would imagine that there must be a ton of security camra s around that park - I am sure they know exactly what happened within minutes of hitting rewind .
Sympathys goes out to the trainers and families of the deceased. I am sure she loved her work - and she will be missed dearly !!
Jim,
There are "real" whale experts, folks who have trained them for years, who will regale us with the extreme intelligence of an Orca, and then "patch" with, "the whale mistook him/her for a toy, and killed them while playing with them". I don't know why folks have such an issue with the fact that something that weights hundreds of times more then man, can actually kill him. Maybe not because it want's to, but simply, because it can. But you are right, no one cared about protecting them, until they became Shamu's.
Could be the whale trainers are a sub-set of chimp trainers who said my chimps won't blow-up when they mature or bear trainers who said my animals love me. Another factor is that we don't breathe well in a killer whale environment.
The story the next morning is that the whale grabbed the trainer's arm and pulled her in. A variation of putting your hand in the cage of an animal you "trust". Again, we don't breathe well in their environment (even if you pass the SW physical test).
Jim,
Some reports say arm, some say around the waist. Some eye witness's say it was the start of the show, some say it was the end. I think it is simply the "Dr. Doolittle" syndrome, and not a subset of anything. "I have this special bond/feeling/intuition with an animal that is beyond anything any other person has.
I can walk with the animals, talk with the animals,
Grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals,
And they could squeak and squawk and speak and talk with me, and nobody else, because I am special like nobody else.
Wade
I am sorry to hear that the trainer was killed...I guess they dont call them Killer Whales for nothing....its not just a clever name, is it?
Lauren Fairchild
Post a Comment