Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "Drowning always seems so frightening to me. I just hope she lost consiousness quickly." Unless she was knocked unconscious before she went under, unfortunately hers would be a horrible death. Drowning is one of the worst ways to go.
Originally Posted By KittyPrincess1206 Well, maybe this is a clue, not to use this particular animal in their shows anymore. I KNOW they have non-show animals for people to enjoy. He may just be a stressed out whale...?
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Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "The 'idea' is that if people see animals up close they will care about what happens to them in the wild." That's great for some animals in non-profit aquariums. Even Sea World has done good work in rescue and rehabilitation. But those "ambassadors to the wild" shouldn't be such large animals such as Orcas and they certainly should not be made to perform tricks. These animals are interesting enough without the gimmicks.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Orcas torture and kill seals for fun in the wild. Why would anybody want to train them?
Originally Posted By skinnerbox Long ago in my undergrad days at SFSU, I took a class in cognitive ethology from an instructor who worked with dolphins at Marine World in language research. She now works at Columbia University and the New York Aquarium. Anyway, Dr. Reiss absolutely HATED killer whales being kept in captivity, under any circumstances. No tank is large enough for them, they're far more aggressive than smaller cetaceans like dolphins, and are inherently more dangerous with unpredictable behavior, because of their size. Dolphins in family pods adapt better to the smaller tanks and rarely attack their handlers or researchers, at least fatally, if you engage them directly and give them stimulating activities and games to play to reduce the stress of captivity. This, however, is nearly impossible to do with killer whales, given their basic temperament. Teaching them behavioral gestures for reward to be performed on regular schedules, whether they wish to or not, is a sure fire ticket for disaster. Dr. Reiss worked with dolphins who did not perform in the stadium tanks, and only worked with her language games when they were willing. That's the only way any large mammal such as cetaceans should be kept in captivity. She wanted all killer whales in captivity to be released, because of situations like this tragic death. Yet, research groups like Sea World continue keeping them, in spite of the fatalities. Stupid beyond belief.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<This is the 3rd person this particular whale has killed.>> From Reuters: "The whale was blamed for the drowning of one of his trainers in 1991 while he was performing at Sealand of the Pacific in 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." While Sea World may have helped with research and understanding of these cetaceans in the past, I think it's pretty obvious that profit was the only motive for keeping this animal in captivity. Really, I just can't understand the thought process of buying this animal from another park knowing it had killed someone...and then still hanging onto it when it killed a second person. If I was the family of this trainer, I would be suing Sea World.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss I'm sure she thought her training and 16 years of experience trumped any risk.
Originally Posted By dshyates It is still unclear if the trainer "fell" into the pool, as was stated in the press conferance. Or she was dragged in as was reported by Chuck Thompkins, head of animal training at SeaWorld. <a href="http://cfnews13.com/News/Local/2010/2/24/woman_at_seaworld_not_breathing.html" target="_blank">http://cfnews13.com/News/Local...ing.html</a>
Originally Posted By trekkeruss From reports I have read, she was praising/touching the animal when it grabbed her and pulled her under.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "I'm sure she thought her training and 16 years of experience trumped any risk." That would be a foolish assumption to make. No matter how much training you have there are factors outside of your control. Especially when you are working with an orca that has killed before.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones I think it has been proven time and time again that during these interactions between killer whale and circus trainer, the killer whale is in complete control. It will happen again.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros "Really, I just can't understand the thought process of buying this animal from another park knowing it had killed someone." If they're at the point where they have been trained to do tricks, wild animals are no longer really all that wild. Yes, they still have their instincts that kick in occasionally, but they aren't reliable enough to depend on their instincts for gathering food in the wild. Getting an animal ready for the transition from captivity to a release in the wild requires tons of extra training, which really isn't all that practical. Especially considering that whales travel in family pods, and this one would be out by himself, it would be very tough for him to adapt to life in the ocean. While it's easy to disagree with keeping the in captivity, if they've lived all (or a vast majority) of their lives being fed by trainers daily, they really don't have the basic instincts necessary to survive on their own.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss If this was any other animal, it would have likely been put down after the first incident, yes?
Originally Posted By quincytoo >>>>Sold to SeaWorld as a stud in 1999<<<<<< I would have thought Seaworld should have been leery of breeding a whale with that kind of behaviour....what if he passed it on to his offspring?? Couldn't imagine them getting *Date Night* set up with him and some unlucky female whale....hope they had whale size rolfies.....joking
