Killer Whale Kills Trainer at SeaWorld. Again.

by Stephanie Feldstein · 2010-02-25 06:00:00 UTC
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Yesterday at SeaWorld Orlando, an experienced trainer was killed by a bull orca named Tilikum (Tilly, for short). Eyewitnesses say that while the trainer was talking to park visitors, Tilly began speeding around his tank. When he circled back, he "shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing around." Paramedics were unable to revive the 40 year old woman.

This isn't about the trainer — whether or not she understood the risks assumed in working with animals or if she had done something "wrong" to incite Tilly. A woman lost her life, and that's a tragedy. I believe that most wildlife park trainers care deeply about their nonhuman colleagues, misguided though they may be in supporting the use of animals in entertainment.

The moral of this story is a reminder that performing animals will always act like animals.

Wednesday's visitors to SeaWorld didn't think they'd signed up for this tragic scenario ... but they had. Putting an animal in a tank, or a cage, or circus ring does not make him domesticated. Neither does getting him to perform a trick or two.

It's not the first time one of SeaWorld's performers has injured or killed a trainer. It's not the first incident with this particular whale either; in 1999, a trespasser to the park was found dead in Tilly's tank. To SeaWorld's credit, they don't seem to rush to kill the whales after these tragedies. Hopefully Telly won't pay with his life this time either. It's not like his nature was ever a secret, even when he deigned to leap around the tank for a cheering crowd.

Places like SeaWorld aren't about good, clean family fun; they're about captivity and the exploitation of wild animals. Park visitors aren't learning about the animals — a show tank is nothing like a whale's natural habitat. If you want to argue for the value of educating the public by getting up close and personal to wildlife, there are a number of zoos and sanctuaries that care for animals who were injured and could not survive on their own, places where they don't expect the animals to do anything to earn their keep.

Tilly couldn't survive on his own at this point, but he hadn't been found that way. He was caught as a young whale in 1983 near Iceland, and promptly shipped off to his first marine park. He's been performing ever since, broken but not tamed. Due to his size, and a history of deaths in his pool going back to his previous home in British Columbia, he isn't allowed to do water work with trainers.

It's not that Tilly's dangerous; the danger lies in having animals in captivity and seeing them as entertainers instead of respecting them as independent creatures.

Photo credit: hyku

Stephanie Feldstein is a Change.org Editor who has been part of the animal welfare and rescue community for over a decade, and most recently worked for an environmental organization.
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