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.
You're exactly right, cultures and adherence to rules vary widely as you can see in any chair restaurant or store! Great point Government Shrinker! We have gone to the Orlando property but that was in 2005, so it's been quite some time. Honestly I have to tell you that we were a bit upset about missing the Shamu show after sitting there in the hot sun waiting for it, but what can you do? No one can force a huge animal to perform, especially when several of them refuse to perform. We had also had our grandson who was 6 at the time at the Dine with Shamu luncheon just prior to the Shamu show. That was wonderful and the trainers were so very informative. Our grandson loved the show, but after reading this story I was frightened considering that we had a table that was closest to where Shamu comes out of the water. Our grandson followed directions and kept his hands inside the rope partition, but we were literally less than 8 feet (I'm terrible with distances) from Shamu when he came out of the water. Photos: 1. Lunch with Shamu - trainers & whales 2. Passing by our table - grandson in lower R corner of photo. 3. When Shamu came out of water just to L of pole in last photo. He was so close to our table I had to back away to get this photo.
So you can see why reading this story was frightening to me. I feel terrible for the trainer, the family, and most especially the other trainers and the visitors to the park that saw this terrible incident.
So you can see why reading this story was frightening to me. I feel terrible for the trainer, the family, and most especially the other trainers and the visitors to the park that saw this terrible incident.