""You can't put yourself in the water unless you trust them and they trust you," Brancheau said."
These are the tragic words of a SeaWorld trainer killed by a killer whale.
I work with farmed animals. They are domestic species, of course. There are seven cattle, eleven production pigs, eight sheep and eleven goats. These are medium to large animals, the largest weighs 2,200 lbs. I trust them to be animals, themselves. I do not trust them to avoid harming me when afraid or upset. I do not trust that they are as body aware as I am (pigs are very body aware, cattle are not). Of course, we do not expect the animals to perform stupid tricks or live in entirely unnatural settings.
An orca is not a domestic animal. S/he never will be. The only trust I have with wild animals is that they are predictably unpredictable, even more so when put - no matter how long - in an unnatural setting.
I am sorry this woman died. I have no doubt she loved this whale and her job. Love and trust do not stop wild animals from doing wild things, including killing people (intentionally or otherwise).
Thank you! My thoughts exactly.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. And I feel bad for these animal sho should not be in captivity.
ReplyDeleteWell said. We can never let our guard down and believe that an animal like this can "trust" us; that's when terrible things like this happen.
ReplyDelete@DaisyDog: I do too. It's just not how wild animals should live.
ReplyDelete@Pibble: Trusting a 6-ton, wild predator is just not safe, I think!
I've gone into two or three rants about this.
ReplyDeleteKeeping these animals in captivity really bothers me.