There are some shocking headlines out there tonight: "Shamu kills trainer," "Sea World Trainer Killed," and other bulletins about the Sea World death today. In case you haven't seen the news, Shamu the whale killed a female trainer at Sea World in an unprovoked "attack."
As a child, I got to visit Sea World and see Shamu. He swam around his tank and splashed the audience and good times were had by all. The trainers seemed to treat the killer whales with respect, and I thought that the whole
Hearing the news that a trainer was killed at Sea World is shocking. As far as I can tell, there is not any video footage of the attack, but according to MythBusters, once a shark (or a killer whale) has you in it jaws, you're pretty much screwed.
Of course, a PETA spokesman said the attack was "a tragedy that didn't have to happen." They basically suggested that the Sea World trainer's death was a logical conclusion to the whale's imprisonment. Their blog post about the Sea World trainer's death had a cruel tone, in my opinion.
Earlier this afternoon, another trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando was killed after being pulled into the tank by an orca named Tilikum (or Telly, for short). According to a witness, the whale, who has been involved in two previous fatal incidents involving human beings and who our captive wildlife director, Debbie Leahy, describes as "12,300 pounds of sheer rage," leapt out of the tank and grabbed the trainer by the waist, pulled her into the water, threw her around like a rag doll, and then held her underwater until she drowned.SeaWorld officials canceled the dolphin and whale shows for the rest of the day, but SeaWorld remains open (have they no shame?!) and will continue to exploit and abuse these captive animals despite the many horrific injuries and deaths of trainers and animals that have occurred throughout the theme park's history.
Seriously, PETA? You're worried about the exploitation of animals over the tragic death of a human? What's saddest is that the trainer killed by Shamu was probably working to educate people about the plight of whales. Shamu killed his trainer at Sea World, yes, but that doesn't mean that he was a bad whale. He was just doing what came naturally to him, playing and swimming.