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Dawn Brancheau, 40, had to be przed from the jaws of Tillikum, a 30 year-old, 12,000 pound male orca whale, after having drowned the female trainer.
Park employees at SeaWorld, Orlando, had to persuade the whale to swim up onto a platform before pulling open its mouth, in order to regain Branchaeu’s body, which took two hours to recover. Brancheau was the most experienced trainer at the Shamu Stadium.
A video taken only minutes prior to the incident, captured Brancheau at play with the huge mammal. Accounts of the incident are wildly different and varied.
A total of eight killer whales are currently housed at the theme park. Tillikum, (‘friend’ in Chinook) has lived at the Orlando theme park for the last 18 years.
It appears that Tillikum (Tilly) has been involved in other deaths in the past and was among the three whales that killed a female trainer at Sealand of the Pacific, in Canada in 1991. It seemed the trainer accidentally fell into the tank and the whales treated her as a new toy.
SeaWorld Orlando bought Tilly, to be used in a breeding program.
A man eluded security in 1999, in order to stay in the theme park after it closed. Next morning his body was discovered draped across Tilly’s back, in the breeding tank behind Shamu Stadium.
Tilly was caught in Iceland in 1983 and believed to be one of the largest orcas currently held in captivity. He was kept in a tank on his own and trainers were instructed not to swim with him, because of his history.
The highly ambitious ‘Believe’ shows have been cancelled in both Orlando and San Diego, pending further investigation. During the show trainers swam with the animals, were balanced, or tossed from the whale’s nose and rode on their backs. A member of the audience was then chosen to ‘become personal’ with the giant mammals.
Peter Hamilton of Vancouver-based Lifeforce, an animal rights group dedicated to saving whales, said they had warned SeaWorld that Tilly was not a suitable animal to be kept in an aquarium. Hamilton believes keeping Tilly away from other whales, in order to breed from time to time, only aggravated the problem.
SeaWorld is undecided as to Tilly’s fate.
About Final Moments of Trainer
Finale moments of female trainer captured on video just before her tragic death. More information : http://www.tropicpost.com/
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Dr Wendy Stenberg-Tendys and her husband are CEO's of YouMe Support Foundation (http://youmesupport.org) provide high school education grants for children who are without hope. You can help in this really great project by taking a few minutes to check out the Sponsor a Student program at Win a Resort (http://winaresort.com). It really will change your life.
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