Posted on 02/26/2010 5:36:59 AM PST by JoeProBono
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- The former boss of a trainer drowned by a killer whale in Orlando says he believes the attack was triggered by the trainer's mistake.
Thad Lacinak (lah-CIN'-ick), a former head trainer at SeaWorld, told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Friday that he has seen video of the moments preceding the fatal attack Wednesday. He said he believes trainer Dawn Brancheau (bran-CHOH') made a mistake by letting her ponytail drift in the water in front of the killer whale.
Lacinak says the killer whale grabbed the ponytail in his mouth and pulled her in the water.
Lacinak says Brancheau, if she were alive, would acknowledge it was her mistake......
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Thank you! Common sense....
Yes, exactly. I hate to say this, but my instinctive response is, “Nothing to see here, simple operation of natural processes.” Some people make the choice to do dangerous things, and sometimes it kills them. I’m sorry for her family, just as I was for Steve Irwin’s family.
If, indeed, that was the cause of the attack--and people knew that this type of behavior could trigger an attack--it seems to me quite negligent that SeaWorld would allow its employees to wear ponytails while working with the animals.
As another poster noted, this will be a very costly incident for SeaWorld.
A “wild” animal in captivity is not exactly a wild animal. Naturally a dog breed that has been in captivity for hundreds of generations is less wild than an Ocelot cub that was born wild but pure Ocelots do make good pets and they are only two and a half times larger than a house cat so they are not as dangerous as a Cheetah or other larger cat.
Remember that domestic animals were not always domestic animals. Remember too that wild animals can be dangerous even if they are vegitarians like Africa’s Cape Buffalo.
When I remarked to my South African game guide (photo expeditions) that the least interesting of the Big Five was Cape Buffalo because it appeared not much more than a
“domestic bull” he went ballistic. He said that they will circle back and blind side charge a pursuing party with regularity. “They are dangerous”. And of course domestic bulls can still be dangerous too.
Different whale?
The second was some poor demented soul who decided he was gonna go for a swim with the nice orcas after closing time, after the beast had arrived at Seaworld.
I'm not saying this diminishes the creepiness of it, to the contrary I'm saying that having killed once should have been cause to just load him up and dump him back in the ocean - or send him to those Japanese dudes, either way works for me.
It's amazing the way that otherwise sane, rational adults can undertake such denial about the danger of messing with wild beasts. As you've pointed out, this is old news in a way. Here in my part of the world, northeastern Oklahoma, we had a psychotic dude running a "refuge" for lions and tigers and stuff complete with a billboard at one time that said "Come play with the tigers!"
Not long after that a lady (employee of said psychopath) had her arm torn off and eaten by a tiger inside its cage while she bled to death watching. The critter was being kept in a "regular" cage, while the industry standard calls for a cage with a double fence. Predictably, the psychotic dude tried to say it was the deceased lady's fault for making the mistake of sticking her hand thru the cage.
The difference that I see is this woman at Seaworld was no doubt a nice lady who had been fed, and accepted, some mistaken notions about how safe her job was. Unlike this stupid psychopath here in my hometown, there are gonna be some MBA types, highly educated dudes who can't plead stupidity, having some 'splainin to do in court.
This is what can happen when you voluntarily give up your spot at the top of the food chain.
What’s in the video?
trainer wearing a ponytail..performing
Look at other times where this kind of thing has happened. The chimpanzee that mauled the woman's face, for instance. It was responding to something because it doesn't have the same makeup as humans. Then again, give a human male a visual cue (a naked woman with a pleasing shape) and they too will respond instinctively and act like...an animal. ;-)
“...Why should a whale be killed because it’s following its instincts?...”
Because it can provide food and oil and bone.
This particular killer whale was not born in captivity; rather, he was captured from his natural environment. That could account for the difference in response. Who knows.
Believe me as someone who has a cattle ranch and has worked around cattle a great deal both bulls and cows can be extremely dangerous. Just because they’re domesticated doesn’t mean they’re not aggressive. There are just certain bulls (in particular) you don’t want to be in close quarters with. Certain bulls and females I would never worry about, they just have a very laid back personality. For cows the equation changes if they have a young calf by their side.
Aggressiveness is also a heritable trait, so I wonder about the offspring this whale has produced.
I assume in the water.
For what? Doing what it was designed by God to do?
Destroyed? No, if anything, released in the wild.
FREE TILLY!
My stance too. And it’s not unbelievable.
You put a killer whale in a tank and then go “Oh My God!! That KILLER whale KILLED!!! We must KILL IT!”
Malarky.
Yeah, it goes against their religion to admit these whales are killers. It always has to be the trainers fault. These people are morons.
Sure, you can train a wild beast to do tricks, but it is still a beast. Id does not love you. It is not being kind to you. It doesn’t show affection for you. It is just following your commands because you feed it after it performs it’s trick. It is and always will be a beast.
I’d like to see these morons try to train these whales without always feeding them. If they are so freaking gentile, just talk them into their little circus show. Try to reason with them and let them know it’s all for a good cause. Stop giving them a big fish every time they jump through a hoop and instead just reward them with a little verbal encouragement. See how well that goes for ya!
yep
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