Whale Kills Trainer at SeaWorld

reply to post by Bluebelle


They should release it back into the wild and not euthanize it! If they do that is wrong imo.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


What with it being in captivity so long they wouldnt be able to.. wouldnt know how to catch its own food etc & would probably try and hang round peoples boats looking for food.
It is massively unfair though, its not like the whale asked to be caught in the first place!

reply to post by Bluebelle

What with it being in captivity so long they wouldnt be able to.. wouldnt know how to catch its own food etc & would probably try and hang round peoples boats looking for food.

Actually I doubt that. Orcas are quite intelligent and I think this animal if released near other Orcas would do just fine.

Orcas hunt together, so it wouldn't be alone, I think other whales would help it adjust to life in the wild much easier than you think.

Hey, watch me poke at this alligator!
See me put my head in this bear's mouth!
Observe me play with these two cute lions.
Look at how tame this whale is!

Oopsie.

reply to post by whatukno


Well I remember the difficulties they had releasing that one they had in 'Free Willy', second half of this article gives a brief overview of what happened.
Obviously thats only one attempt and wouldnt neccesarily be how all attempts would go, but considering that this whale has spent most of its life in captivity, the time it would take to get the whale into a place where it could fend for itself, whilst also not putting trainers in danger of being attacked... I just cant see it happening.

reply to post by Bluebelle


I have a different opinion. I think that it wouldn't be up to man to rehabilitate it but other orca.

It has been shown that these animals hunt collectively and communicate with each other. That is a good thing, because it shows that they can cooperate and achieve a goal.

Secondly this whale was caught and brought in wild, now while it has lived off of handouts from mankind, it is not a stupid animal, I believe that it can regain it's predatory instincts.

I think that he would be adopted quickly by a group of other killer whales and I think that he has skills to teach them that would help their ability to hunt.

The key is the reintroduction, it appears that orca have different languages depending on the part of the globe they habitate. Much like humans. Reintroduction to a pod would be a slow process, perhaps taking months.

But it can be done, and in this case I think it could be successful.


[edit on 2/26/2010 by whatukno]

I read some article about this and whoever wrote it was trying to personify this killer whale by calling it a serial killer, as if it was all part of some sinister plan.

Also, why was anyone surprised by this in the slightest? Here is an animal that is an apex predator, even sharks run from this thing! Another little clue is it's name......

Killer Whale.

Now let's keep these things in captivity and give them little cuddles and whatnot. What could possibly go wrong

I loved going to Seaworld, but I always felt bad for the Orcas. Their tanks are so small compared to their size it's sad.

The performance tank or even the temp holding tank right before shows are not where the whales spend most of their time. Have you actually seen where they normally swim? An easy way is to rent Jaws 3. Since it was filmed on location at a Sea World park, there are scenes where they show their normal swim areas accurately, if I recall correctly.

Breeding whale or not, after the second incident, the decision should have been an easy one. I suspect the trainer's family have an easily winnable lawsuit here (or to be more precise, settlement). It'd be easy to cite the park knew the animal was violent in the past, and shouldn't have put folks at risk.

*** CNN news conference right now.