A killer whale killed a trainer Wednesday afternoon at SeaWorld’s Shamu Stadium in Orlando, Florida, a public information officer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.
The 40-year-old woman, identified by sheriff’s spokesman Jim Solomons as Dawn Brancheau, was in the whale holding area about 2 p.m. when “she apparently slipped or fell into the tank and was fatally injured by one of the whales,” he said.
But a witness told CNN affiliate WKMG-TV that the whale approached the glass side of the 35-foot-deep tank at Shamu Stadium, jumped up and grabbed the trainer by the waist, shaking her so violently that her shoe came off.
A SeaWorld employee who asked not to be identified confirmed the description of the attack and added that the whale involved is named Tillikum.
SeaWorld uses “Shamu” as a stage name for any of the male or female orcas in its shows.
“One of our most experienced animal trainers drowned” in the accident, said Dan Brown, vice president and general manager of SeaWorld Orlando. He said an investigation will be carried out.
“We’ll make our findings known in due course,” he said. “We’ve never in the history of our parks experienced an incident like this. All standard operating procedures will be reviewed.” He would not elaborate.
“Please bear with us; we’ve just lost a member of our family,” he said.
(Source: CNN)
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14 Responses
that’s a great idea! let’s jump into a tank with an animal that has the word “killer” attached to it’s name, has razor sharp teeth and is almost as intelligent as a human!
maybe this one is related to the woman in the previous article who jumped in front of israeli soldiers who were bulldozing houses in gaza.
She fell in by accident, hanavon
#1, Hey chacham, it doesn’t say she jumped in willingly. It was clearly an accident that turned fatal. Get a grip dude.
#1 Im sorry to inform you that you picked the wrong name for yourself. There is no room for jokes in such articles. If that is all you have to say… then keep it to yourslef.
I agree with #1. Noone is saying that she did not fall in by accident, but the whole nature of this job is dangerous, and many times they do go in on purpose. After all that is the whole thrill of the attraction.
#1 that was very not nice of you
Did you check if the whale pictured is female? If so you are not allowed to show her image.
#1 – Tasteless
#7, You’ll just have to try and control yourself on this one.
if you look at bbc news it says that this happened in the middle of a show at the park and she had been sitting by the side of the pool stroking the whale minutes before it happened and then they’re not sure if she slipped into the pool or the whale grabbed her and pulled her in – but there were loads of witnesses as it was in the middle of the show.
Appears she was intentionally killed (other news sources say this whale has killed twice before). They`re trained ANIMALS – this animal reverted to its natural instincts. Although what hanavon says seems uncaring the truth is, why are people trying to “tame” very powerful creatures who were never intended to be entertainment? They are not baalei daas,one can never fully anticipate their behaviour – this seems to make it a sakanah to work with them (great to watch). There is only Shlitah by HKB”H!
An animal that kills person is put is death first misha Sanhedrin daf hayomi 5770
#1 (hanavon):
The orca (Orcinus orca) is called “killer whale” because it is the only cetacean that regularly feeds on other whales – thus it was originally known as “whale killer” and the current name is simply a reversal of that name. In fact, this animal is comparatively placid towards humans (although horribly cruel to its prey) – a human has never been killed by a wild orca. Only in the unnatural environment of aquaria have human fatalities by orcas occurred.
#7 (jakyweb):
If you were really looking for an answer to that, then yes, that is a female killer whale. Notice the calf at her side – that gives it away.
P.S. Tillikum, the animal responsible for the killing, is a bull orca.