DawnWatch: Captive Orca deliberately kills trainer but Sea World reports it as "accident"

Date: February 25th, 2010

Yesterday, February 24, a trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando was killed by an Orca named Tilikum. While SeaWorld called the event an accident, and police dutifully reported it as such, multiple eyewitness accounts tell us that Tilikum rose from the water, grabbed the trainer, shook her, and dragged her under. Tilikum has killed twice before.

The incident is covered by just about every news outlet, so I won't attempt to share them all. The coverage by Jane Velez Mitchell on her CNN Headline News show "Issues," is finishing as I sent out this alert and was, as usual, superb. You should be able to find it on line tomorrow at http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/issues.with.jane/
You can send Jane a thank you at http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?106

I will share here part of the best article I have yet seen on the issue, which is from the highly respected Christian Science Monitor. The quality of the article is indicated by its headline: "Death of Sea World trainer: Do 'killer whales' belong in theme parks?"

It quotes Joyce Tischler, founder of and general counsel for Animal Legal Defense Fund. We read:
"She compares an orca’s life in captivity in a tank to keeping a human being in a bathtub for his entire life."

And it quotes David Phillips, director of the International Marine Mammal Project for the Earth Island Institute, who says, "The vast majority of the orca whales in captivity would be far better off to be returned to the wild. Orcas are unbelievably ill-suited to life in theme parks and can be successfully returned to the wild. We know, because we have done it."

(Note: Earth Island Institute funds the work of Ric O'Barry, whose work to save dolphins from exploitation and slaughter is covered in the Oscar nominated, The Cove. You can learn about a March 6 fundraiser I am hosting for the group, at which Ric will speak, at http://www.EarthIsland.org/thecoveparty )

Wikipedia tells us that Tilikum was captured near Iceland in 1983. His family is surely still swimming in those waters, and groups are calling for his release. But Tilikum makes SeaWorld millions of dollars per year as a sire, so that seems unlikely to happen.

You'll find the Christian Science Monitor article on line at:
http://tinyurl.com/ylbuzcg

Please click on that link, and please forward the article. Papers count their clicks and forwards, and list the most viewed and forwarded articles, giving readers easy access to them. You may also send an appreciative letter to the editor. It will let the editors know this kind of coverage is appreciated, and it will keep the topic alive on the editorial page.

The Christian Science Monitor takes letters at letters [at] csmonitor.com

Most importantly, please send a letter to your local paper, where it is the most likely to get published; some smaller papers publish close to a hundred percent of letters they receive. This tragedy has given us an opportunity to speak up for captive marine mammals. Please take that opportunity. A few minutes of your time can influence the thinking of thousands.

Feel free to ask me for help if you have trouble finding the correct email address for a letter to your editor. It is usually under "contact us" on the paper's website, or can be obtained with a quick call to the paper.

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line.)