Trainer Dawn Brancheau Dies at SeaWorld’s Shamu Stadium in Killer Whale Attack

It’s why they are called “KILLER WHALES”.

“Dine with Shamu” show? I am guessing Sea World may want to rename the tourist attraction after the horrible incident.

Brancheau with Tilikum.Photo: AP Photo/Julie Fletcher, Orlando Sentinel

40 year old, experienced trainer Dawn Brancheau was drown and killed on Wednesday at Sea World’s Shamu Stadium when she was reportedly dragged into the orca’s tank at about 2 pm.  According to The Orlando Sentinel, witnesses said that the killer whale  suddenly grabbed Brancheau by the upper arm, tossed her around in his mouth and pulled her beneath the water. A truly sad and tragic event.

Suddenly, they saw a woman in the killer whale’s jaws, her face bloody. The more than 20-foot-long orca circled round and round, turning her over and over, they said.

“It was terrible,” Sobrinho said. “It’s very difficult to see the image.”

Witnesses who watched the attack while eating at the “Dine with Shamu” show — a poolside buffet where trainers demonstrate their connection with the animals — told the Sentinel a female trainer was petting a killer whale when it grabbed her and plunged into the water.

It reappeared on the other side of the tank and leapt up holding the woman, they said.

Within minutes, an alarm sounded, and security workers escorted the spectators out. Some people were screaming, and children were crying, Sobrinho and Oliveira said. The scene was more orderly at “Dine with Shamu.”

It appears that this is not the first time that this Killer Whale as, um killed. Would that make it a serial killer whale? I think we need to remember that these animals are not playful creatures at heart. All the training in the world does not stop the fact that in the end, it is a killer whale. Using sarcasm to make their point, the blogprof further reminds us killer whales are at heart killing machines.

The killer whale who took the life of a SeaWorld trainer is something of a serial killer … whale, as it appears the marine mammal, named Tilikum, has a “violent history.” The largest killer whale in captivity (weighing in at five tons), Tilikum was responsible for the drowning of a biology student in 1991 and the 1999 death of a gatecrasher, who was found naked and dead on the whale’s back. Experts said these deaths were not attacks, but “misguided attempts by the otherwise docile whale to play.”