An animal trainer at SeaWorld Orlando was killed this afternoon in front of horrified theme park visitors by an orca that reportedly was involved in two previous deaths.
"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," SeaWorld General Manager Dan Brown said in a statement. At first while watching the news this afternoon, I thought, way to go Shamu, but, upon further watching, ...I still said way to go Shamu. The incident occurred when the trainer fell into the tank during a show, and witnesses of the event say it was a violent killing, with splashing and thrashing.
This isn't the first "murder?" that's taken place, The first occurred in 1991 at the now gone Sealand of the Pacific park in Canada. Tilikum and two female whales drowned a 20-year-old marine biology student and part-time animal trainer in front of other staff members, according to the New York Daily News
Then in 1999, Tilikum -- who had been transferred to SeaWorld following the closure of Sealand of the Pacific -- was found one morning with a 27-year-old homeless man on his back, also drowned,CBS Orlando Reported The man had apparently remained hidden in the park until closing and then climbed into the tank or sneaked in after hours.So since 2 out of 3 of these killings are not the fault of the whales, I still stick by the whole, Go Shamu thing. Which is odd considering I usually never side with killer whales, considering I've dated one.
