ShareThisWe kill animals casually, by the billions, but when an animal kills one of us, we take notice.
On Feb. 24, Tilikum, a 22-foot, 12,000-pound killer whale, pulled marine mammal trainer Dawn Brancheau into his tank at SeaWorld Orlando; she died from extensive trauma and drowning.
Not much is likely to change as a result of this episode. Trainers have been killed or injured by killer whales in the past. By the weekend, SeaWorld had re-opened and the whale shows were under way, although trainers are staying out of the water at present.
It's probably fruitless to spend too much time thinking about why Tilikum killed Ms. Brancheau. The last five minutes of her life were recorded on video. Both she and the whale appear to be relaxed and comfortable. Brancheau gestures to Tilikum and he responds. She splashes him playfully with water. He opens an impressive tooth-lined maw to receive half a dozen fish, each large enough to feed a person.
On one hand, we can begin to understand Brancheau easily. News reports indicate that she saw a killer whale show when she was 9 years old and decided immediately that she wanted to be a marine mammal trainer. And that's what she became. At 40, she was one of the senior trainers, working at what many would consider a dream job.
If her work ever became routine or tiresome, she doesn't show it in the video shot immediately before she died. She engages Tilikum with considerable energy and apparent delight. It wouldn't be hard to believe that she felt genuine affection for this magnificent beast.
Tilikum, on the other hand, will always be a mystery; we're unlikely to ever understand in any useful way what goes on behind his massive rostrum. Ironically, marine mammal shows have always depended on the illusion that smart animals like killer whales and dolphins can be understood in the same terms that we understand each other.
Ordinarily, killer whale and dolphin shows consist of the animals' more or less natural behaviors trivialized in ways that amuse us. Fortunately, we've gotten past the days when dolphins were dressed up in grass skirts and sunglasses.
But not very far past. My own local dolphinarium persists in referring to its three hapless captives -- creatures that might ordinarily swim 100 miles per day, but now are confined to a 400,000-gallon tank -- as "ambassadors" for their wild brethren.
And that fatuous illusion is consistent with the biggest illusion of all, that dolphins and killer whales are happy collaborators in the all-important effort to amuse us.
Therein lies the essential contradiction of marine mammal shows: our amusement depends on our ability to humanize the behaviors of dolphins and killer whales. But the shows themselves depend on our treating these animals in ways in which we rarely treat other human beings.
Tilikum was captured in the North Atlantic in 1983, when he was approximately 2 years old. Since killer whales live in intergenerational matriarchal pods, his capture removed him from "family" and confined him with "strangers." Since he's an instinctual swimmer, hunter, and breeder, designed for traveling great distances at sea, even his 3.2-million gallon tank must take on the approximate proportions of a solitary confinement cell.
Apologists argue that marine mammals never had it so good as they do in captivity, but that dubious assertion is based on a set of values that is entirely human. Of course to assert that dolphins and killer whales are unhappy in captivity is to be guilty of the same sort of projection of human emotions onto animals that is essential to the existence of marine mammal parks.
The point is, these splendid, intelligent beasts' existence makes sense only in the natural habitat in which they evolved; we're unlikely to understand much about them at all in the sterile environment in which we confine them, including why they sometimes turn on us.
(John M. Crisp teaches in the English Department at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. E-mail him at jcrisp(at)delmar.edu For more news and information visit www.scrippsnews.com.)
COLUMN
wow !
if your going to keep whales in a tank then make shure you have space and beyond for them its not a matter of cant its a matter of wont provide.if you dont have the funding then dont even think about showing one thanks !
Excellent article. Now we
Excellent article.
Now we have the dilemma: how do we tell our kids that this kind o amusement park is not fun at all?
It is sad, just sad...
Whales
Hi Fernanda...I'm a mother of two young daughters. In the past I have taken them to 'dolphin' shows in our area. They were always delighted to go -- keen to wade into knee deep water to pet the dolphins. Then some motnhs ago we watched the movie The Cove, and it dawned on us just where most sea mammals in shows come from -- they are captured from the wild. It was right then that we all -- as a family -- decided that sea mammal 'shows' are not in fact educational, and judging by the manner in which these shows are 'stocked', just an atrocity. They don't need to exist and our kids don't need this kind of 'fun'. And we decided never to attend sea world type shows again. Ever. It does not mean my kids know less about these majestic animals or will care less about their fate in the wild -- in fact it means quite the opposite -- they understand and care even more for sea mammals and the challenges they face.
tilikum
i think that nothing should be done to the animal. spectators say the whale seemed irritated. If tilikum seemed irratated they should have left him alone. it was noones fault of what happened. it is a sad ordeal. but could have been prevened
Tilly
First I'd like to say that my heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of Dawn Brancheau. She was a very sweet, enthusiastic, and talented lady. It's absolutely horrible what happened to her.
I had heard that Tilly seemed irritated earlier that day. However, during the performance just before the attack, he was responding well with his trainer - so much so that she was rubbing him, which is apparently what the trainers do when the whales perform well. The whales put on many performances a day, 365 days a year, in addition to training and practicing. The trainers know them very well. Ms. Brancheau was a very experienced trainer - one of the very best - and if she felt Tilly was irritated or out of sorts, I believe she would have handled things differently.
Killer Whale
Wish I could see the footage of him grabbing her and what he did next.
I don't really know if he was trying to hurt her. He certainly had the power to crush her in his jaws, rip her in half, etc. I mean, look at what they sometimes do with seals, blasting them up in the air and all. I kind of wonder if he was just being what was in his mind a little rowdy or rough but what translated to devastating trauma force when applied to a human.
I saw a show at SeaWorld back in the 70's (It may have been called the Miami Seaquarium back then) and the killer whales were very clearly trying to scare or push the trainers off their little causeway/stage into the mouth of another KW that was quietly waiting on the other (the blind side) of the causeway. They were "playing" but still hunting. and they were annoyed that day as well, the show was cut short.
Crisp: Why Did Tilikum Kill?
"Why did Tilikum kill?"??????? I can't believe ANYONE could be so dense as to ask a question like that. HE IS A WILD ANIMAL BEING HELD CAPTIVE IN A CONFINING FISH TANK AND FORCED TO DO STUPID PET TRICKS ON A DAILY BASIS. He snapped before, he was bound to snap again. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, or even an Orca expert, to figure that out. FREE TILLY!!!