One minute, Dawn Brancheau, a 40-year-old trainer at SeaWorld Orlando was walking around the outside of the tank, explaining facts about whales to a rapt audience.  The next, she was being thrashed from side to side violently by a whale called Telly, short for Tilikum.  Given the whale is 13,500 pounds, there wasn’t much that could be done to save Brancheau’s life.  She died in one of the most horrific accidents in SeaWorld history.  The saddest thing is that this should never have been allowed.

If you believe the news reports, Tilikum has killed before.  Is it really that surprising that he’d kill again?  In 1991, Telly was one of three whales at Sealand of the Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia, that killed a trainer.  In 1999, 27-year-old Daniel Dukes was found dead in Telly’s tank at SeaWorld in Orlando.  The official cause of Dukes was drowning, but he was bitten by the whale either before or after his death.

Given the situation, I think it’s time that Telly either finds himself set free in the ocean or turned into fish sticks.  If he was a person, he’d still be in prison (probably on death row) by now.  Otherwise, he’ll kill again.

Tags: killer whales, whale kills trainer, SeaWorld death, Dawn Brancheau, SeaWorld Orlando, Telly the Whale, Tilikum, trainer killed by whale in front of an audience, whale show accidents, unusual animals, orca, Shamu

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