[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Granted the first victim snuck into the park, but dead is dead.

He should have been retired then.

[Deo volente]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/whales/debate/trainers.html

On February 20, 1991, University of Victoria marine biology student and part-time trainer Keltie Byrne, 20, slipped and fell into the orca pool at Sealand of the Pacific. She had just finished a show with the three orcas. Since Sealand trainers stay out of the water, she was not wearing a wetsuit. One whale took her in its mouth and began dragging her around the pool, mostly underwater. A champion swimmer who had competed at the international level, she was no match for three huge orcas determined to keep her in the pool. At one point she reached the side and tried to climb out but, as horrified visitors watched from the sidelines, the whales pulled her screaming back into the pool.

“I just heard her scream my name,” said trainer Karen McGee, 25, and then I saw she was in the pool with the whales. “I threw the life-ring out to her. She was trying to grab the ring, but the whale, basically, wouldn’t let her. To them it was a play session, and she was in the water.” McGee and other Sealand staff tried to distract the whales by throwing them fish, banging on the water with steel buckets and giving them hand and voice commands. Nothing worked. Byrne came up screaming one more time and then, as the whale swam round and round the pool with Byrne in its mouth, she finally drowned. It was several hours before her body could be recovered.

She had ten tooth marks on her body, the largest on her left thigh, but was otherwise untouched. The whales had stripped her clothes off. “It was just a tragic accident,” Sealand manager Alejandro Bolz told newspaper reporters. “I just cannot explain it.”

[kcvl]

Woman killed at SeaWorld grew up near Chicago

Hours after receiving news of the accident that killed Brancheau, her older sister Diane Gross said her kid sister died doing what she most loved.

"We as a family feel that she had one of the most awesome jobs in the world and we loved watching her do it," Gross said in a telephone interview late Wednesday.

"Words can't describe the loss that we suffered today, but she lived a full life and she lived life to the fullest. How many people in this world can say 'I ride Shamu for a living?'" Gross said.

"She was awesome at what she did and you could see it," Gross said. "Dawn, when she smiled, she got the largest smile from ear to ear because she was so happy doing what she did. As much as she felt fortunate, we were just all happy for her that she was able to pursue her career and succeed and be, to me, the top of her field."

More Here

Despite living in Florida, Brancheau kept in constant contact with her family, inviting siblings, nieces, nephews and grandparents to see her at work. She and her husband Scott also returned to Indiana each Christmas.

2000 Interview with trainer