SeaWorld: Tilikum the killer whale would die in the wild
SeaWorld officials in Orlando have rejected calls for a killer whale which killed its trainer to be released back into the wild or to a seaside sanctuary.
SeaWorld also said that killer whale shows would resume at the park on Saturday just days after Dawn Brancheau was apparently dragged under the water and drowned by the whale. But trainers will not enter the water during the show, SeaWorld CEO and president Jim Atchison told a news conference.
Tilikum, described by Atchison as a “wonderful animal” has been linked previously to two other deaths it has emerged. It was one of three whales involved in the drowning of a trainer at a Victoria, British Columbia, marine park in 1991. And in 1999 the whale was blamed for the death of a man at found floating in his tank at SeaWorld after apparently climbing in while the park was closed.
But officials say releasing the whale into the wild is not an option because he has been in captivity for so long.
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Animal rights activists argue that the incident highlights the cruelty of keeping large marine mammals in “bathtub”-sized tanks as performing animals.
PETA spokesman Jaime Zalac said the death was “a tragedy that didn’t have to happen” and called on SeaWorld “to stop confining oceangoing mammals to an area that to them is like the size of a bathtub.”
“We have also been asking the park to stop forcing the animals to perform silly tricks over and over again. It’s not surprising when these huge, smart animals lash out,” he said.
Chuck Tompkins, Head of Animal Training at SeaWorld, paid tribute to Brancheau in a video posted on the SeaWorld blog on Friday, and defended keeping the whales in captivity.
“We’ve learnt so much about these animals and we have so much more to learn. Having them in this environment where you have these trainers that work with them day in and day and developing these kind of relationships, you can learn things that you’re never going to learn in the wild,” said Tompkins.
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