So far, in all, this Killer Whale is responsible for taking the lives of four people, why keep giving it so many chances?

The trainer made a fatal mistake. She had a pony tail. When she laid on her side, the pony tail went in the water. The whale thought it was a toy. It got aggressive only when other trainers tried to take its toy away. I doubt you'll see trainers wear pony tails again.

BTW, these whales can kill white sharks.

Isn't the number of deaths 3 for this particular whale?

If you read the details of all three deaths, you will see it's not like this whale went nuts and went on a rampage.

There was 2 other whales involved in the first death where it appears the death was caused by the whales tossing her around playing.

The 2nd death involved someone who snuck into the park after hours and no one knows exactly what happened. He was just found dead. He caused his own death.

The third death is under investigation. Certainly, there were a lot of witnesses and it seems there are conflicting stories. One explanation being tossed around is the trainer allowing her pony tail to fall forward which made the animal react.

In any case, this whale is a large dangerous animal living in unnatural conditions. It doesn't appear the animal struck out or attacked. It just behaved naturally. The people who died may have simply failed to handle the animal properly.

Until a final decision is made about the cause of this last death, I don't think the whale should be killed. And it certainly shouldn't be released because I don't believe it would adapt.

We should be careful to avoid kneejerk reactions.

"We should be careful to avoid kneejerk reactions.

#2 | Posted by BillJohnson at 2010-02-27 07:01 PM | Reply | Flag: RETORT ROOKIE

The trainer who died in the latest incident would not want any harm to come to the orca, her family members said. It's a wild animal in a captive environment. The only humans it might harm are trainers who are educated about the risks of their job. A zoo wouldn't put a tiger to death if it killed somebody who wandered into its cage.

I see...

Whales don't kill people....no, wait....

Killer whales (actually, not whales, but the largest breed of dolphins) in captivity live in an environment akin to a bathtub. Of course they'd be stressed. We would be too if forced to live in such a small space. Even prisoners get to go to the cafeteria and outside. They aren't stuck in their cells 24/7/365.

I've never heard of a whale (or large dolphin in this case) ever hurting a human in their natural environment. They seem curious about us, but that's it.