SeaWorld stops orca shows
Killing prompts safety review for whale trainers
ORLANDO, Fla. – Despite calls to free or destroy the animal, SeaWorld said Thursday it will keep the killer whale that drowned its trainer, but will suspend all orca shows while it decides whether to change the way handlers work with the behemoths.
Also, VIP visitors will no longer be invited to pet the killer whales.
“We’re going to make any changes we have to to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Chuck Tompkins, chief of animal training at SeaWorld parks, said a day after a 12,000-pound killer whale named Tilikum dragged a trainer into its pool and thrashed the woman to death as audience members watched in horror.
Talk-radio callers, bloggers and animal activists said Tilikum – which was involved in the deaths of two other people over the past two decades – should be released into the ocean or put to death like a dangerous dog.
Tompkins said that Tilikum would not survive in the wild because it has been captive for so long, and that destroying the animal is not an option either, because it is an important part of the breeding program at SeaWorld and a companion to the seven other whales there.
Dawn Brancheau, a 40-year-old veteran trainer who adored whales, was rubbing Tilikum from a poolside platform when the 22-foot creature grabbed the woman’s ponytail in its jaws and pulled her in.
The killer whale shows have been put on hold at SeaWorld’s three parks in Orlando, San Antonio and San Diego. Tompkins said they will not resume until trainers understand what happened to Brancheau. He also said trainers will review safety procedures and change them as needed.
There is virtually no contact between visitors and the orcas at SeaWorld shows, said Fred Jacobs, a spokesman for the SeaWorld parks. But in the past, VIP guests occasionally were allowed to touch the whales. That will no longer be permitted, Jacobs said.
Because of Tilikum’s size and history of aggressive behavior, trainers were not permitted to climb into the water with the animal. They were only allowed to work with him from a partially submerged deck.
Brancheau’s older sister, Diane Gross, said the trainer would not have wanted anything done to the whale. “She loved the whales like her children. She loved all of them,” said Gross. “They all had personalities, good days and bad days.”