And therein lies the problem

""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).

Calgary Zoo Failure to Provide

After killing off 50 of its animals, the Calgary Zoo has decided to bring in a panel of outside experts. Well, it decided to bring in experts because of bad publicity, not because they think they've done anything wrong.

From the article, "The review comes as the zoo also revealed that another capybara died in the summer after being attacked by one of the other giant rodents."

Well, here's the thing. The Calgary Zoo had three capybaras. Now they have one. Two of the capybaras arrived in August from the Buffalo Zoo. The Calgary Zoo defied the odds and managed to kill 2/3 of the capybaras before 2010. 

Since 2004, two elephants, one Turkmenian Markhor goat, 41 cow-nosed rays, two capybaras (only one publicized), an unspecified number of gorillas, and at least one hippo have all died. Most since 2008. Since the Zoo neglected to mention the other capybara death, it seems plausible that other animals are dying without the public knowing.

The CEO of the zoo says this, "To continue their support for this institution, our community needs answers — no more accusations, no more allegations, no more irresponsible criticisms, but documented facts that will give them good reason to maintain their confidence in us."

Mr. Lanthier, I think the numbers speak for themselves. Accidents, horrible, awful things happen, but in an institution that bills itself as a world-class leader in animal stewardship...well, the accidents should be kept to a minimum. If 50 deaths in the past two years, many from human error, are the apex of zoo animal stewardship, that makes me cringe.