On February 24th a killer whale named Tilikum killed a Sea World whale trainer. The whale grabbed Dawn Brancheau, a longtime employee at Sea World, by her pony-tail and dragged her under the water. The whale kept her in his grasp for up to thirty minutes. Tilikum is a thirty year old killer whale and has a history of violence against trainers. The employees at Sea World and were instructed to not be in the water with Tilikum. Evidently, they should have taken more precautions when working with this particular whale.
This is no rarity that a wild animal who is held in captivity attacks a person. This brings up the question, should large animals be kept in captivity and be trained to perform in shows? Tilikum is not the only example of animals who perform in shows attack their trainer. In addition to killer whales, tigers or other large jungle cats have attacked people on stage while performing in magic shows or circuses. Animals attacking their trainers seems to be a growing problem. I believe these animals should not be forced to perform in front of crowds but instead should be slowly released back into the wild once they have gained the ability to survive in the wild.
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Although the animals may truely love their trainers, they are wild. Their homes are out in the see or out in the jungle. If they are putting up any fight to not perform then obviously they should not be held in front of a crowd. You gave them a chance to show their skills, they didn't want it. If a person did that on stage, they would be fired and let free. The same should be done for an animal.
ReplyDeleteI know the reason why we hold large killer animals in captivity because they are fascinating to see in person. At some point we should have expected this to happen because they are called killer whales and killer animals for a reason. I do believe in the releasing of entertainment based animals from captivity but we have to realize that our soceity probally will not let that happen for some idiotic and bizzare reason.
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