Actually, the story doesn't say it was Shamu, but a killer whale at the Shamu Stadium in the Orlando SeaWorld has killed one of its trainers. I keep thinking, "you know, we call them killer whales for a reason."
Sad. Sad not only for the death of the trainer but also for the poor animal. It want's to swim across the ocean and be free, instead it's caged and made to perform and do tricks which I find disgusting. It snapped, naturally.
Eek. And looks like that killer whale was involved in a couple other human deaths as well - why would you want to keep working with it?
What's the crap line they always use at places like that? "These aren't tricks, these are natural behaviors modified blah blah blah." Killer Whale 3...People 0
motherfucker! I thought this was gonna be a thread about Rosie O'Donnell or Roseanne Barr going off the deep end again. I was all giggly, and then I read this. On a serious note, poor guy. However, I can't say I'm surprised. You can't domesticate an enormous animal like that. It reminds me of a story the other year about some enormous boa or anaconda that was like 50' long? IDK biggest snake ever found. I'm all but sure it was Indonesia, and some tribe was worshiping it as a deity and then the government came in, put the snake in a huge cage in some zoo and declared it a national treasure. Apparently the zookeepers feed it five dogs a month. Now how many times before that snake says "ya know, I'm sick of dog; I wonder what you taste like."
Would you like to be put in a cage for the rest of your life taken out only to perform tricks where a crowd can yell and scream... Congrats, you found a typo, asshole.
[-]Looks like he/she slipped and knocked her/his self out and drowned.[/-] Well bugger BBC is now saying it killed her.
[/quote] Would you like to be put in a cage for the rest of your life taken out only to perform tricks where a crowd can yell and scream...
It was a she. Not bad looking from some of the pics I've seen. This is kind of sad because I'm sure she loved the creatures... but they are called wild animals for a reason. Apparently she was snatched up by the whale and pulled under the water right in front of the eyes of a horrified crowd.
This whale is on it's 3rd human kill now. I would say it might have some objection to captivity. Perhaps it's time to release it.
Don't you watch your adventure movies, man? That thing's tasted human flesh. There's only one answer now:
Oh, and for the record, this is why you don't fuck around with big carnivores. Sigfried and Roy, this chick, the Grizzly Bear Guy. Shit, you shouldn't even fuck around with a medium sized omnivore like a chimp. But if it eats meat and is bigger than a car, you keep a safe distance from it and/or have something powerful enough to kill it. And with a fricken whale that last bit could be problematic.
Couldn't agree more, and stuff like this happens all the time. Like the group of kids who scaled two high walls to find a sleeping crocodile and hit it with a stick. Guess what happened? Yep the croc ate one of the kids. Then there were the morons who were taunting tigers at a zoo before they were eaten, the woman who jumped into a polar bear enclosure because they looked like they needed a hug. I saw a clip of a tourist who climbed over two safety rails to get a closer shot of a bear, she didn't die but that's only because a group of zookeepers beat the bear with a stick until she was released. And recently there was the poor women who had her face ripped off by a neighbor's pet chimp ... The list goes on and on and it is always the same equation. A human does something foolish, is injured/killed by a wild animal. Then the wild animal is injured/killed for being a wild animal. Hopefully Shamu won't be put down and hopefully nobody will be foolish enough to get into the water with him again.
Agreed. Sure it's neat to see these animals but there's no need for them to do tricks. Seeing a lion at a zoo is cool, having said lion do tricks would add nothing to the experience. Killer Whales are fascinating critters on their own, there's no need to force them to do flips or launch people into the air. Especially when people are routinely killed during the performance. I dunno, seems like natural Killer Whale behavior to me.
Keeping Orca's in captivity is completely unjustified, keeping them in captivity for 'entertainment' purposes is horrific. Almost all captive Orca's suffer terribly, these are one of the creatures I would like to see a world-wide ban on keeping captive.
Can't remember the source but I've heard the term "Killer Whale" was a mistaken translation of "Whale Killer" because unlike English other languages put the noun before the adjective. For example in English we might say "The blue car." Whereas in other languages the description would be "The car blue." Makes sense because the killer whale isn't a whale at all, rather it is the largest member of the dolphin family.
Completely agree. When it comes to keeping animals in captivity I'll admit I'm of two minds. On the one hand zoos can be sanctuaries, especially for endangered species while on the other hand zoos are animal prisons whose inmates are guilty only of being interesting to look at. Orcas are not endangered, but more than that we cannot provide an adequate substitute home for these highly social aquatic animals. Better to let them roam free and watch the many, many documentaries on TV.
The answer is of course IT SHOULD BE PUT DOWN. But I guess there's lots of humans and not as many Orcas, so the Orcas should lives should be more valuable. Bunch of fucking pansy tree huggers.
Actually, I'm with Tex on this one. There is no need to kill it. These whales do not attack humans in the wild, so there is nothing to be gained (no protection for anyone) in killing it. The claim that is has "tasted human flesh" does not seem to be justified from what I have read. There does not seem to be any case where it has eaten anyone, or part of anyone. It has mauled three different people, that is all. Apparently, it either saw them as a threat, or as toys to play with. In no case did it see them as food. So why kill it? Let it go free. There is nothing to be gained by killing it.
