Many people see animal compassion as a big part of green living. Some chose to be vegetarians, some choose to not wear products made from animals, and some fight for animal rights, which can include cracking down on animal brutality, animal testing, and the captivity of wild animals.
Yesterday, a SeaWorld trainer was killed by a killer whale named Tillikum in Orlando, Fla. It is not known how the trainer ended up in the tank. Some say she was pulled in by the whale and some say she fell in in what appears to be an accident. What is known is that she was killed and SeaWorld issued a statement saying they will make their “findings known in due course” and that they had “lost a member of our family.”
Of course, when a captive wild animal kills someone, it is going to cause a lot of talk about the subject. The director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Jack Hanna, said that he hopes SeaWorld continues to work with the killer whales, but acknowledges that “What happened is something that happens; it happens in our line of work. They are dangerous animals; they’re wild animals.”
I don’t mean to joke at a tragic time for SeaWorld and the family of the trainer, but this reminds me of the Chris Rock skit about the Sigfried and Roy attack. “The tiger bit the man in the head and everybody’s mad at the tiger. Talk about the tiger went crazy. That tiger ain’t go crazy, that tiger went tiger. You know when that tiger went crazy? When that tiger was riding around on a little bike with a Hitler helmet!”
PETA also had an opinion of the death. Spokesperson Jaime Zalac said the trainer’s death was “a tragedy that didn’t have to happen.” PETA has asked SeaWorld “to stop confining oceangoing mammals to an area that to them is like the size of a bathtub” and had also been asking the park “to stop forcing the animals to perform silly tricks over and over again. Zalac said, “It’s not surprising when these huge, smart animals lash out.”
Tillikum was a killer before this incident. It is believed he killed a man who had hidden in the park after closing in 1999 and was a part of three whales that drowned a trainer in 1999.
What is your opinion? Is death just an occupational risk when you work with wild animals or should these animals not even be confined to places such as SeaWorld and the zoos?
(This image is a work of a sailor or employee of the U.S. Navy, taken or made during the course of the person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.)