...things you never expect to hear!
Posted on 02/24/2010 6:28:54 PM PST by beaversmom
Just about everyone with access to a 24-hour news channel has seen the home video of a killer whale attacking his trainer at a Sea World facility in San Antonio. The whale, named Ky, is seen repeatedly trying to submerge his trainer of 10 years—in front of a shocked audience which turned out to see a seemingly innocuous event called the Shamu Adventure.
No doubt trying to dismiss the attack as a simple rush of randy hormones, the trainer has publicly labeled it the actions of a teenage whale nearing breeding age.
To which we would say: That's exactly the point.
Ky, like every captive wild animal in the world, whether a circus elephant or a white tiger in Las Vegas, has complex physical and behavioral needs, which can never be fully satisfied in captivity. Breeding is just one of many such needs among killer whales, commonly known as orcas. They also require lots of open water and the life-long companionship of their own family members.
That's one reason why The HSUS is constantly encouraging summer vacationers to avoid marine parks: Visitors only help perpetuate this grim illusion—that orcas and dolphins are perfectly content performing in tanks that can never recreate their natural environment.
"To say that Ky's actions were motivated by his teenage hormones is a bit like saying a lion's hunting instincts are motivated by his appetite," says Naomi Rose, The HSUS's marine mammal scientist. "Well, yeah, maybe that's right. But that's not the point. The point is humans cannot predict, let alone control, these natural behaviors. The danger in thinking we can control these animals is injury, maybe even death."
The Human Factor
As the Sea World incident underscores, captive orcas present real dangers to humans. There are no firm figures on the number of orcas held captive around the world; about 50 of the whales are believed to be held in the United States, Canada, Japan, France, and Argentina. But the pressures to secure more wild killer whales remain, as witnessed by Russia's return to the captive orca business last year. And why not? Some reports say captive orcas are worth $1 million each.
Statistics documenting human injuries and deaths related to captive orcas are hard to come by. But the mainstream press has documented some cases in which humans did not fare well against the appropriately named killer whales.
In 1991, a 11,000-pound orca named Tillikum, along with two female whales, drowned a young part-time trainer named Keltie Byrne at Sealand of the Pacific in Canada. The incident was hauntingly similar to Ky's attack in San Antonio: The earlier attack occurred in front a horrified audience, which watched helplessly as one of the killer whales grabbed Byrne in its mouth and dragged her around the pool, mostly underwater. The entire incident played out over several long minutes. "The whales weren't trying to kill Byrne, but Tillikum and his orca companions didn't know that humans can't hold their breath as long as whales," says The HSUS's Rose.
Tillikum was later shipped to Sea World of Orlando where he would be implicated in another human death. A man, who had apparently stayed in the park after closing hours, jumped into Tillikum's tank in July 1999. He was found dead the next morning, naked and draped across the whale. The man's swim trunks were found in the water, and his body was scraped up, a sign that Tillikum had dragged him around the bottom and sides of the tank. (Tillikum, incidentally, is Ky's father.)
"What all these incidents tell us is what marine parks don't want you to know: captive killer whales are dangerous to people, even those who have worked with these animals for years and years," notes The HSUS's Rose. "In both episodes with Tillikum, the whale wasn't necessary trying to hurt the unintended victims, but his very size and behavior makes him a danger to people, even if the whale were just 'playing' with the people. Simply put, these are wild animals. Taming them is only an illusion; their natural behaviors will always pose a threat to the people foolish enough to interact with them."
By the same logic, people often think they can safely interact with dolphins at so-called swim-with-the-dolphin programs. This is a myth, too, says Rose.
In their joint 2003 report, Biting the Hand that Feeds: The Case Against Dolphin Petting Pools, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and The HSUS wrote, "...[M]edia reports and historic government records reveal a range of serious injuries caused to visitors by captive dolphins in interactive programs, including cuts, bruises, broken bones, bites and rakes. Because of the sheer size of dolphins and their concentration in petting pools, abrupt movements and occasionally aggressive competition for food can put visitors at risk of physical harm."
Nor are dolphins themselves safe in captivity. A four-month-old female dolphin died on Wednesday, July 28, at the National Aquarium in Baltimore; tests revealed she had a serious bacterial infection. While her mother performed in a show earlier that day, the young dolphin was the target of two sexually aggressive male dolphins, who reportedly pushed her under water for longer than she had oxygen. Experts believe the young dolphin, because of the infection, could not handle the routine roughhousing.
As The HSUS's Rose notes, "It's not unusual for male dolphins to do what they did. They do it in the wild. That's why mother dolphins separate themselves. In captivity, however, they don't have that option."
The bottom line: Marine parks are not necessarily safe places for either marine mammal or human. Patronizing these facilities only perpetuates this misconception. If you really want to see marine mammals this summer, consider booking a whale or dolphin watching cruise.
...things you never expect to hear!
This is actually Tillikum’s second human kill. The first one was in 1999 — a 27 year old man who was apparently desperate to win a Darwin award: “The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said the man apparently hid in the park until after it closed and then climbed into the tank.”
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/24/killer.whale.trainer.death/index.html
Also from this CNN article, it says that in the show just preceding this fatal attack, the trainers were having trouble getting the whales (plural) to obey their commands and one of the trainers even made a joking announcement to the crowd about it. I expect this will be a key point in the promised review of procedures that SeaWorld will be undertaking. When the whales aren’t reacting to their trainers the way they normally do, this should be a huge warning sign to stop the show, get the trainers on high alert, and cautiously investigate the cause. A tummy ache or a tooth ache could put a whale in a bad mood, and others might react to the changed mood of the first one (in other words, they may prioritize the needs of other whales over the wants of their human trainers).
And I expect there could be other hard-to-spot factors that could set off aggressive behavior in whales. They have the ability to hear frequencies that humans can’t hear (20kHz is the high end of the human hearing range, and orcas can hear up to 120 kHz). Does SeaWorld electronically monitor that range of frequencies, to make sure some moron in the crowd isn’t either unwittingly or deliberately transmitting a high-frequency sound that could distress the whales without being heard by people? See this posting by a marine biologist trying to determine a safe frequency for “pinging” in connection with seal research, to avoid triggering the predation instincts of orcas: http://www.mail-archive.com/bioacoustics-
Rules don’t apply to women. They think they can do whatever they want without any consequences affecting them.
Good points!
I HOPE you just forgot the sarc tag.
Incinerate me but its the same thing with Muslims.
When I was skimming the article you posted (I’ve read quite a few on this topic today!), I missed the references to the previous TWO kills by this same whale. Wow! He really doesn’t want anybody to forget that he’s a *killer* whale.
I’m really surprised that trainers aren’t on permanent high alert around this whale. The Darwin award winner doesn’t count — any self-respecting whale would kill a whackjob stranger who jumped into his pool in the middle of the night, just like any self-respecting human would shoot a home intruder — but a previous killing of a trainer should have earned this whale a permanent “Be Scared Of Me - I Kill!” flag. I guess when you work with them every day, you get comfortable and let your guard down.
This comment in the part about the 1991 kill was interesting: “ “The whales weren’t trying to kill Byrne, but Tillikum and his orca companions didn’t know that humans can’t hold their breath as long as whales,” says The HSUS’s Rose. “ I don’t know how much I trust any HSUS spokesperson, since they’ve got a pretty hard-core ideological agenda. But I can see how whales could get confused about these humans who always seem to be in the pool swimming around like they’re one of the whales. I don’t suppose it would occur to a whale that a human can’t go without breathing as long as a whale can. Maybe the whale-trainer philosophy needs to focus more on establishing a clearer “me human, you whale” understanding.
An amusing whale anecdote I learned in a psychology class a few years ago (and confirmed to be true): Captive killer whales are routinely trained to urinate on command (among other tricks which are important both for testing them for their own medical needs and for doing research on them). I don’t even want to KNOW how this is accomplished, but I have to think it’s a seriously dangerous mission — but apparently all in a day’s work for a whale trainer.
The bright side is that this trainer died doing what she loved to do, and probably lived more in 40 years than most people live in 80 or 90. Still too bad she couldn’t have done it for a lot longer.
Hey. See my most recent link posted. Very interesting, I thought....let me know what you think.
The female trainer killed today is prominently featured on Sea World’s Believe DVD, a 20-minute show where trainers caress the snouts of the Orcas, hug them, jump in the water and swim with them, riding on their backs and allowing the Orcas to raise them out of the water while the trainer stands on their snout.
The female trainer killed today is prominently featured on Sea World’s Believe DVD, a 20-minute show where trainers caress the snouts of the Orcas, hug them, jump in the water and swim with them, riding on their backs and allowing the Orcas to raise them out of the water while the trainer stands on their snout.
Wild animals belong in the wild. Sea World needs to let them go. Enough is enough.
From your link: “In March 1987, at Sea World in San Diego, Jonathan Smith, 21, was in the water performing with the orcas before several thousand cheering spectators crowded into Shamu Stadium. A six-ton orca suddenly grabbed him in its teeth, . . . Smith had spent only a few months with orcas, but had worked the seal and otter show for a year. Mild-mannered, he described the job as “learn-as-you-go.””
Okay, this is totally insane. 21 years old? This sort of work should only be done by mature people who have many years of serious study and experience with whales. The distraction of trying to keep a show going and play to a crowd while still maintaining full awareness of the whales has got to be extremely challenging even for the most experienced trainers. A 21 year old shouldn’t be doing much more than tossing fish to whales from a distance, and carefully observing/studying experienced trainers as they work in the pool with whales.
No, what he did was give animals personalities. Now we have animal rights activists who were taught to believe Disney’s crap.
Also from this CNN article, it says that in the show just preceding this fatal attack, the trainers were having trouble getting the whales (plural) to obey their commands and one of the trainers even made a joking announcement to the crowd about it. I expect this will be a key point in the promised review of procedures that SeaWorld will be undertaking. When the whales aren’t reacting to their trainers the way they normally do, this should be a huge warning sign to stop the show, get the trainers on high alert, and cautiously investigate the cause.
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We were at Sea World in San Diego last summer and just such an incident occurred - the whales came out and were not responding to the beginning commands.
Less than 5 minutes after they realized the whales were not responding correctly to their commands, they cancelled that show & asked everyone to leave the Shamu stadium. I got the distinct impression from what they said that it was maybe mating season.
So they are careful about it. Or were when we were there.
I agree. Cats and dogs are nothing but animals. I don’t have anything against them but I can’t understand how some people idolize them.
Because he humanized dumb animals.
I am with Jacki on this one Jack - I SINCERELY HOPE you forgot the sarcasm tag. If not, you have some serious problems and I absolutely resent that type of comment.
A woman was KILLED today by this animal and all you can say is “rules don’t apply to women. They think they can do whatever they want without any consequences affecting them”?? WTH is wrong with you?
Animals DO have personalities. Very distinct personalities. Disney-type tales obviously wildly exaggerate the similarities between animals’ view of the world and people’s, but there actually not a great deal of difference when it comes to basic personality traits. Shy, confident, trusting, distrusting, aggressive, submissive, etc are all clearly visible to different degrees in different individual animals. And the effects of various types of stress on personality and mood is clearly visible as well. A dog which has been regularly deprived of sufficient food for some period in its life will display much the same food hoarding and food insecurity behaviors as a human child who has experienced the same thing.
That was San Diego SeaWorld, and this fatality happened at the Orlando SeaWorld. There may well be different “cultures” at the different facilities. Though I expect they have the same policies on paper, the actual carrying out of concepts like “careful” can vary tremendously depending on the individuals involved and the attitude of the manager in charge of the facilities.
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