ORLANDO, Fla. — A SeaWorld killer whale snatched a trainer from a poolside platform Wednesday in its jaws and thrashed the woman around underwater, killing her in front of a horrified audience. It marked the third time the animal had been involved in a human death.
Distraught audience members were hustled out of the stadium immediately, and part of the park was closed.
Trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, was rubbing Tilikum after a noontime show when the 12,000-pound whale grabbed her and pulled her in, said Chuck Tompkins, head of animal training at all SeaWorld parks. Park officials say the veteran trainer drowned.
Audience member Eldon Skaggs said Brancheau's interaction with the whale appeared leisurely and informal at first. But then the whale "pulled her under and started swimming around with her," he told The Associated Press.
Skaggs, 72, said an alarm sounded and staff rushed the audience out of the stadium as workers scrambled around with nets.
Skaggs said he heard that during an earlier show the whale was not responding to directions. Others who attended the earlier show said the whale was behaving like an ornery child.
He left with his wife and didn't find out until later that the trainer had died. The retired couple from Michigan had been among some stragglers in the audience who had stayed to watch the animals and trainers when the accident occurred.
"We were just a little bit stunned," said Skaggs' wife, Sue Nichols, 67.
Another audience member, Victoria Biniak, told WKMG-TV the whale "took off really fast in the tank, and then he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing around, and one of her shoes flew off."
- Huffington Post
"just a little bit stunned"! I think that's either an incredible understatement or a very astute observation about the wildly inappropriate expectations of the attempts to "domesticate" wild animals. Fuck that trainer. Unless she was secretly a mole within the Sea World infrastructure biding her time to free the animal I don't feel the slightest bit bad about her death. I would be happy to defend this position if anyone is offended by it.
ReplyDeleteI like your argument, Dave, and agree with you 100%.
ReplyDeleteOne may argue that these whales being trained in Sea World and the like are "free" from their harsh lives in the wild; a natural habitat where they perhaps had a low chance of survival (sickness, injury, etc.). These aquatic parks provide a safe haven for these animals. Most importantly, they receive the medical attention they would otherwise be unable to obtain in the wild.
Another argument: It is also important to note that orca whales aren't exploited for the rest of their existence. The creatures are eventually taken back into the sea.
Yes, but at what cost? The whales which have spent a majority of their lives interacting with humans, being hand-fed oodles of fish, are suddenly dropped into the vast ocean? The idea of capturing whales and using them as an attraction, in the long rung, does more harm than good to both the whales AND humans (another dead trainer...have we not gotten the picture?)
1. Animals have been fine in the wild for forever. The only reason I see that they could conceivably be perceived as being safer in a torture-porn exhibit like Sea World is because that way they can't be caught by humans who want to physically, rather than spiritually, kill them.
ReplyDelete2. This argument plays into the (false) idea that humans know what is best for the natural world and everything in it, and are at the top of some imaginary pyramid over which they were given dominion (by God or the divine power of Science). This is obviously a myth created by the very people who use this illusion of the benevolent shepard to ruthlessly exploit, whether it be whales or any other (every other) aspect of the natural world. Any one who still possesses a modicum of common sense and has been paying the slightest bit of attention to rapid animal extinction rates (we are in the middle of the "sixth great extinction event, and the only one in the history of the planet to be caused primarily by a species that resides on it), the destruction of the vast majority or arable top soil (current estimates put the percentage of the world's farming land that is "moderately or severely eroded" at 80 percent!), or climate trends can easily figure out for him or herself that human civilization acts only in its own interest. Pretending otherwise only allows us to ignore the obvious.
Dave, those are some pretty bold things to say. I don't think the sick whales would rather die than this so-called spiritual murder. Places like Sea World do in fact have many positive effects for animals despite the poetic resentment against them. It is true animals have been in the wild forever, yes. It is also true that animals go extinct, and many of our attempts to counteract this could be considered "unnatural." In fact, our animal rescue facilities would be committing this holy murder every day. We must be careful not to over-generalize the sincerity of those who devote their lives to caring for animals and their ecosystems. Many of the problems these animals face are associated with our impact on the world, so whether or not we decide to intervene, we have taken part in altering their natural existence in the inherency of sharing the planet. I think the ultimate illusion is that there is some spiritual natural world versus the one we ourselves control and inhabit, because we are not exempt from being a part of the natural animal kingdom, and neither are our actions. That's kind of what you were saying though with the whole "imaginary pyramid" thing.
ReplyDeleteso im basically agreeing with you but i hope u realize there actually are some good people out there with noble interests and ur argument to simply leave wild animals alone just reminded me of some conservative 'get yer government outta my face' attitude
ReplyDeleteCurran, you're right on a number of points here, and, I think, wrong on a couple. Lets go through this point by point. Of course you're right, whales would like to live. Every living creature wants to live, except for some humans. I'm led to believe there is an inherent death drive pervasive throughout human civilized culture, what with the way it is rapidly and unapologetically destroying the land base it depends on for survival. That's an aside, however, and I recognize that cultural trends are based on the decisions of a few, but they are also something that we are all complicit in in the act of our silence.
ReplyDeleteYou say that places like Sea World do many positive things for animals, and that the way to correct the genocide (granted, my word) we have carried out is to intervene to get ourselves out. It is a tricky position we've gotten ourselves into. We've done so much damage to the natural world that it seems a natural impulse to "do something" to try to get out of the mess we have created. Organizations like Sea World (in its more positive actions), and governmental organizations whose aim is ostensibly to protect wild life and wild land, take a short-sighted approach to animal protection, which, in my opinion, isn't aid at all, but rather contributes to the illusion of positive action. It allows for us to say, "Look, we saved this one whale. We're making a difference!", while not affecting any structural change to the system that continues its undaunted march towards destruction. And, as far as the "training" of animals for human enjoyment goes, I don't think you're really defending that.
Secondly, my argument for leaving the natural world alone is conditional, and based on the well-documented ability of the natural world to restore itself when truly left to its own devices. Take, for example, the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens in 1980. This was a catastrophe of epic proportions that destroyed 200 square miles of forest, 15 miles of river, and millions and millions of animals. Most scientists were projecting that not even insects would return to the area during our lifetime. However, little more than 20 years later, the scientists were proved uniformly wrong. Insects returned quickly, mammals are back, as well as most amphibians, the river is in great shape and fish are back. The only areas still troubled are those in which the Forest Service used the eruption as an excuse to let the timber industry go apeshit, and where the Corps of Engineers fucked things up.
ReplyDeleteSo, generally, I'm not demeaning the intensions of people trying to work within a system whose goal is murder to the planet, but rather suggesting that their efforts are wildly misguided. It is my belief that to work within this system and effect real environmental change is nearly impossible. To use a recent proof of this, look at what happened in Copenhagen. Take an example I read of a hydrologist who has been working in the field trying to get dams that are no longer even in operation taken out who has still never ONCE seen one taken down, but cheerfully states that he hopes to before he dies. These are dam that could be taken down in 15 minutes by anyone with the desire and fortitude. SO "noble" as these interests may be, I don't believe them to be constructive, but rather only serving as a mask for the destructive tendencies of our society as a whole. An opportunity to say, "We tried."
Lastly, I don't think there's anything poetic about any of this.
training animals for human enjoyment = $ = ability to do anything
ReplyDeleteit also in turn leads to a public appreciation for these whales, who unlike some of us, need things to be on display for them to acknowledge their existence. i know this sounds hokey, but maybe the kid who loved shamu will grow up to feel a stronger feeling of responsibility to protecting the whales than some kid who only went to fucking disneyland
anyways, i do agree with you. a lot of the time it their efforts can be a red herring. but my point is that there is no "their" really because we cannot simplify the issue into a "they" and clump anybody we see fit into our argument based on this over-generalization without explicit facts
calling sea world a torture-porn spirit-killer sounds all righteous and poetic to me
ReplyDeletebut i like to believe shamu and gang are all friends, so...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAfTHFiiNF8
ReplyDeleteall the torture porn ive seen had less children and more shackles
ps.
im tired and not reading/thinking through what im writing so i apologize if im fighiting some straw man or something