A veteran animal trainer whose dream was to work at SeaWorld‘s Shamu Stadium was killed Wednesday when one of the show’s whales Orca whom she loved most, dragged her underwater.
SeaWorld said that 12,000-pound Tilikum pulled Dawn Brancheau, 40, into the orca’s tank about 2p.m.
Witnesses told the Orlando Sentinel that the animal suddenly grabbed Brancheau by the upper arm, tossed her around in his mouth and pulled her beneath the water as dozens of tourists looked on in horror.
Brazilian tourist João Lúcio da Costa Sobrinho, 28, and his girlfriend, Talita Oliveira, 20, watched the attack from an underwater-viewing area where they had gone to take photos.
Suddenly, they saw a woman in the killer whale’s jaws, her face bloody. The more than 20-foot-long orca circled round and round, turning her over and over, they said.
“It was terrible,” Sobrinho said. “It’s very difficult to see the image.”
Witnesses who watched the attack while eating at the “Dine with Shamu” show — a poolside buffet where trainers demonstrate their connection with the animals — told the Sentinel a female trainer was petting a killer whale when it grabbed her and plunged into the water.
It reappeared on the other side of the tank and leapt up holding the woman, they said.
Within minutes, an alarm sounded, and security workers escorted the spectators out. Some people were screaming, and children were crying, Sobrinho and Oliveira said. The scene was more orderly at “Dine with Shamu.”
Question is, what poor animal will do when Money hungry big companies like Sea World wants there both trapped animals and poor employees work and work.
Same said by Several spectators that the animals had been agitated during a 12:30p.m. show, playing or fighting with one another and refusing to obey commands to splash the crowd, a staple of the program. In that case, authorities should have called off the show rather then endangering life of poor lovely trainer, who was just doing it for some money and her love for animals but what she got in return.Death from her own loved ORCA.
Poor whale showed her anger on poor trainer when they both loved and kissed each others for years. Every where now this most loved whale is projected as Killer but in fact, its Sea world management fault and must be blamed and questioned for letting show proceed and run, inspite of known anger shown by Whales in prior show..
“It is with great sadness that I report that one of our most experienced animal trainers drowned in an incident with one of our killer whales this afternoon,” Sea-world President Dan Brown said in a statement to the media. “We’ve initiated an investigation to determine, to the extent possible, what occurred.”
Dont Dan Brown figure out as whose fault is this. Its just a sheer pressure on poor trapped animals where they are made to perform show after show and what people except from them, when they originally tried to show there anger in previous show?
Dawn Brancheau had worked at the park since February 1994. Ever since she visited SeaWorld with her family about 30years ago, Brancheau’s goal had been to train killer whales, said her mother, Marion Loverde of Indiana.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a longtime critic of SeaWorld’s practices, again called on the park “to stop confining oceangoing mammals to an area that to them is like the size of a bathtub,” it said in a statement.
“It’s not surprising when these huge, smart animals lash out.”
Many other animal-rights activists have long criticized SeaWorld and other marine parks for keeping orcas and other wildlife in captivity. Russ Rector, a former dolphin trainer in Fort Lauderdale, said keeping the animals captive makes them dangerous.
“Captivity is abusive to these animals. And the abuse mounts up. And when these animals snap — just for a minute — they’re so big and can be so dangerous that it’s like a shotgun,” Rector said. “It does an incredible amount of damage in just a moment.”
ORCA Whale was one of three killer whales blamed for the 1991 drowning of a trainer while he performed at the now-defunct Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia.
Much of the debate on morning news shows centered on what to do with Whale but infect it should be more to decide as how to ban these shows that are just illegal and torture to animals.
Earlier today, Jack Hanna, a well-known animal expert with ties to Central Florida, spoke on national television about the tragedy, saying animal experts such as Brancheau are aware of the risks, as well as the benefits, of working with live animals.
“The only thing I can compare it to is when the astronauts went to the space station and that tragic thing happened coming back,” Hanna said, referring to the 2003 disintegration of the Columbia space shuttle that killed seven astronauts. “Why did we do that? We did that to learn more about space and how that will help us.”
Tourists react to death
This morning, as tourists returned to the park, an announcement was made on the speaker system, apologizing that The Shamu Show would be closed today. Nothing was said about the death.
“It’s scary,” SeaWorld Orlando visitor April D’Agostino said this morning. “But they know what’s at risk when they get in the tank with those whales.”
D’Agostino heard the news about the trainer’s death on television, as did the Malkins from Asheville, N.C.
“I’m sensing that the mood today is a little more somber,” Heidi Malkin said while visiting the park.
Although Malkin and her husband, Dave, heard about Wednesday’s accident on television, it didn’t prevent them from visiting SeaWorld Orlando.
“We wondered how the park would be different today,” Dave Malkin added.
About six television news trucks, most representing local stations, were outside the park before its 9 a.m. opening, but there was otherwise little evidence that anything at the park had changed.
Tourist Dennis Diego, 30, of Sao Paolo, Brazil, said he wasn’t immediately aware about what happened, even though he was at the park Wednesday and saw helicopters flying overhead.
He found out about the attack after he and his wife, Vanessa, 29, returned to their hotel.
The Diegos had seen the same show where the accident happened earlier in the day, but it had not been the best performance.
“Not everything went right,” said Dennis Diego. “The girl said the whales were not in the mood for it.”
As the park opened today, cars streamed into the parking lot. At the entrance to SeaWorld, a sign informed guests that The Shamu Show would remain closed.
In his television appearance, Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio, said that holding animals in captivity not only conserves the creatures, but it also helps educate people.
“Why do we have whales, as well as elephants and other animals? We have it to educate folks,” he said. “It’s the last chance we have to save these animals.”
SeaWorld said that 12,000-pound Tilikum pulled Brancheau, a 40-year-old veteran animal trainer, into the orca’s tank about 2 p.m.
“Dawn was a beautiful person,” Hanna said on CNN. “I did several shows with her . . . with Tilly, even in the background — that type of thing.’ he said. “I could tell you now she would want her work to continue.”
Hanna said the previous death linked to Tilikum was a different situation.
In 1999, park officials found the naked body of Daniel Dukes lying across Tilikum’s back at SeaWorld Orlando.
Dukes apparently had sneaked into SeaWorld after hours to swim with the animals.
“That’s like going over the fence at the NASCAR race,” Hanna said. “You can’t blame SeaWorld for that.”
SeaWorld acquired Tilikum after another fatal incident.
In 1991, Tilikum and two female killer whales dragged trainer Keltie Byrne underwater, drowning her in front of spectators at Sealand of the Pacific, a defunct aquarium in Victoria, British Columbia.
SeaWorld San Diego cancels show
Also Thursday, SeaWorld San Diego, a sister park to SeaWorld Orlando, canceled its Shamu show for the second consecutive day in response to the death here.
San Diego park officials had not yet determined whether Friday’s show would be canceled. But the park has worked to improve safety after several incidents over the last three decades in which trainers were injured, officials said.
In 1971, an employee suffered puncture wounds when a killer whale tossed her, according to Times reports. The most recent San Diego attack occurred in 2006 when a 33-year-old trainer was hospitalized after a killer whale dragged him to the bottom of the Shamu pool during a show.
“We’re terribly saddened by the loss of the member of our SeaWorld family, it doesn’t matter what park,” SeaWorld San Diego spokesman David Koontz said Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
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