Posted on 02/27/2010 7:39:13 AM PST by JoeProBono
Miami Sequarium Curator Says Relationships with Orcas Are Built Over Years, Countless Hours of Interaction, Play.
In the wake of the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau, killed by a whale named Tilikum at SeaWorld Wednesday, Robert Rose, curator at the Miami Seaquarium, said on "The Early Show" Friday he has no fear of the killer whales in his care. He said his relationship with the whales at the Seaquarium has been built over years through countless hours of interaction and play.
"They're part of our family. We care very deeply about these animals," he said. "We really love and enjoy what we do as trainers."
Rose said he knew Brancheau and his wife worked with her. He said this is a difficult time for people in the wildlife industry. He said his heart goes out to her friends and family.
Bingo. Sucks for whales, dolphons and elephants to name a few/ Polar bears in zpps etc. This is all spin by Seaquarium and Sea World. They could care less about the trainer body count. Some idiots will want to “work” with whales and they think doing circus tricks is important work. Seaquarium is right on the ocean so i though they had bigger pens. Keeping whales and dolphins is concrete pools is cruel.
Apparently they grabbed Tikkum out of his pod off of Iceland when he was young. Sick.
So does this mean Robert, ‘Pride-goeth-before-the-fall’ Rose will be the first one back into the water with his famous three-time man-killer?
I had a 5 foot ball python in high school. Yes, it was stupid, but I was a dumb kid at the time. Anyways, even then though I knew as close and comfortable I was to Salem she was still a constricter. When I put her around my neck I had to make sure she didn’t decide to wrap around it and squeeze. She bit my brother mistaking him for food. It was hilarious.
We has her about a year or so before we sold her.
Animals are animals and no matter how we think they can conform and behave like humans, they just don’t. This Orca whale was doing what it knows. Not the whales fault. It’s the humans fault for thinking the whale is a Teddy bear that will never hurt them.
It’s not about having wild animals in captivity so we can study and see them when we otherwise would not be able to in the wild. It’s about treating those wild animals like PETS.
It’s the Disneyfication of the animal kingdom and our need to show them all as cute and cuddly and friendly.
Make them dependent on you for food and survival then make them do tricks for your amusement- all the while choosing to pretend their wild, killer, side no longer exists.
Then we have the nerve( the stupid, anyway) to be SURPRISED when they ‘snap’ one day and act according to nature.
Goes for dogs bred for aggression, snakes, big cats and ‘Killer whales’.
Amazing how- in trying to teach wild animals to be friendly- the human race has learned so little.
Ever since that tragedy of the woman who had her face torn off by a chimpanzee I would have thought people would have come to understand that large, higher-order mammals like chimps, big cats, wolves, bears, killer-whales, etc. weren’t put on the Earth to be anybodys pets. Guess not. These are cute cuddly human-like beings. They’re incredibly powerful, strong creatures with millions of years of evolution and instinct hard-wired into them and their behaviour involving inter-action with humans is always unpredictable. This is why they’re called ‘’wild’’ and it’s in the wild were they should be left as God created them to be.
“It’s the humans fault for thinking the whale is a Teddy bear that will never hurt them.”
Yes!
Typo, meant to say ‘’they’re not cute-cuddly’’.
God help this poor woman. How awful.
Next time a trainer gets killed, I don’t want to see a “boo-hoo” story, or even hear their name. They know the risk.
In that same report they mentioned the $5M insurance policy on that whale and how he is an important part of their breeding program.
They are usually the same people...
That’s amazing. God bless the doctors who saved her face.
. Seaquarium is right on the ocean so i though they had bigger pens.
The Miami Seaquarium has a rather small pool, but only one orca, I think her name is Lolita. I used to live there. It is by far a better show than Seaworld. Having said that, when you get in a tank with a killer whale, or a tiger cage like Siegfried and Roy, you take a calculated risk. Every now and then, you lose.
Nature is as nature does. But we think that if we keep a killer whale captive long enough, it will become tame, and if we just talk sensibly long enough to Ahmedinijead, he will learn to love Israel.
Another nut who can’t tell a killer whale from Lassie.
NO fear, eh? Maybe not now- but I’ll bet there was fear in those last few seconds for that naive trainer.
There’s a word for those who do not fear wild animals...
Victim.
I view people that claim they have “no fear” of animals that can kill them in seconds as having lost touch with reality.
Trainer Has “No Fear” of Killer Whales. Famous last words.
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