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 ...
big time
I’ll tell you why I don’t even like pictures like this. It gives the impression this whale is showing affection. It gives the illusion this killer whale is no different than a little cute puppy you can sit on your lap.
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is just something so wrong with pictures like this that overly humanize something that is very dangerous.
Witnesses said the whale played with Brancheau like a toy. Authorities said that trainers trying to help her could not get into the water because Tilikum was so aggressive. They had to coax him into a smaller pool and raise him out of the water on a platform before they could free her.
Pretty gruesome.
(Seeing mental image of Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale on the Yellow Brick Road saying "Lions and tigers and bears! Et cetera!)
“Anything is possible when you BELIEVE”.
That is an insidious message we keep giving kids. Believe what? Anything worthwhile takes a little more then “belief”. Like hard unrelenting work sometimes for years.
He did not put himself in that tiny pool of water. People did.
He needs to be killed. Period.
We do this with bears who become problems for people. Same for killer whales. Once they get a taste for people, do not release them into the wild.
There are lots of Orcas that interact with humans without killing humans. This one is now involved in 3 human deaths. It would be a bad idea to allow its genes to further propagate. It shouldn't be allowed to further breed, and is too dangerous to be allowed near humans again. Give it to the Japanese to put on the menu.
Considering that one of his offspring was also involved in an incident, I submit that allowing him to breed was a bad idea. Only proven human-friendly orcas should breed for show animals. Think of it as evolution in action.
How is it a mistake when the whale is doing what it does naturally? It’s as though some of these people want to convince us morons that killer whales really aren’t dangerous.
Like they’re really so much smarter than the rest of us and they have to be on some kind of mission to convince us that wild beasts really aren’t wild at all. There’s really nothing dangerous about a killer whale. Our fear and ignorance of nature has lead us to misunderstand the killer whale. They’re not killers, they’re “Orcas.”
Now, I have nothing against these shows or against zoos. Nothing at all. But it cannot be a mistake when the whale attacks a trainer. The trainer is food. Period. The mistake is when the trainer forgets that and actually believes the whale “loves and trusts” the trainer. That it’s really not about that fish it gets as a reward, it’s about that special “relationship” of love and trust.
It might be showing affection at that very moment. But any wild animal in captivity, semi-tamed, can reverse that cuddly love in an immediate and deadly way.
I think SeaWorld management needs to be destroyed.
It’s a Killer Whale. And frankly, it didn’t even mean to kill her, it was just playing. It didn’t eat her.
That would be like blaming a dog on a leash for running around someone and tripping them so they crack their head and die.
Nuff said.
Read up on ‘em. They don’t typically hunt human prey. We aren’t on their menu. Seals are.
I don’t think my previous reply necessitated a smart-ass response, either.
The problem here as I see it is that our pop culture overreacts to certain things and probably underreacts to others.
How is this fundamentally any different then the case of a roofer falling off a roof while working (apparently happens a lot - roofing is actuarially a very hazardous profession) or an electric company worker frying themselves while working near high voltage lines or any number of other bad outcomes that occur in daily life?
In my mind it’s not. It’s just the Disneyfication and Oprahization of our culture makes this somehow different.
The trainer was working at a somewhat hazardous job and eventually she drew the short straw.
The difference here was that is was in front of a lot of kids, the everyone has heard of Shamu and Free Willy.
But fundamentally, it’s no different then a cop getting killed while making a traffic stop on the highway and getting clipped by a passing vehicle.
Its called a “Killer Whale” for a reason, not a “Cuddly Whale”. By nature, these are still animals, and act on animal instict.
She is in love and he is hungry......and patient..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.