Tragedia w parku rozrywki; "to było okropne"

Tragiczna śmierć 40-letniej trenerki z amerykańskiego parku rozrywki SeaWorld w Orlando na Florydzie. Kobieta została zabita przez orkę, która była jej podopieczną - informuje CNN.

Jak poinformowali przedstawiciele parku, wczoraj około godz. 14 trenerka Dawn Brancheau przebywała w rejonie zbiornika i z jakichś przyczyn znalazła się nagle w wodzie, gdzie została śmiertelnie raniona przez orkę. Informacje na temat tego, w jaki sposób Brancheau znalazła się w basenie, są różne.

Jeden ze świadków powiedział współpracującej z CNN sieci WKMG-TV, że orka zbliżyła się do szklanego boku zbiornika głębokiego na około 10 metrów, wyskoczyła z wody i złapała trenerkę w talii, potrząsając nią tak gwałtownie, że kobiecie spadł z nogi jeden but. Pracownik SeaWorld, który prosił, by nie podawać jego nazwiska, również w taki sposób opisywał cały incydent.

Inne informacje podała jednak policja. Rzecznik biura szeryfa z hrabstwa Orange powiedział, że Brancheau ześlizgnęła się do zbiornika.

- Wszystko wskazuje na to, że był to wypadek – powiedział Jim Solomons.

Jak ujawnił pracownik SeaWorld, do tragedii doszło z udziałem orki o imieniu Tillikum. Wcześniej tę samą orkę łączono z dwoma innymi śmiertelnymi wypadkami.

- Jeden z naszych najbardziej doświadczonych trenerów utonął w wyniku wypadku – poinformował Dan Brown, wiceprezes i główny menadżer parku SeaWorld Orlando. Dodał, że przeprowadzone zostanie w tej sprawie dochodzenie.

- Będziemy informować o wynikach – obiecał. - Nigdy w historii naszych parków nie było podobnego incydentu. Przeanalizujemy wszystkie standardowe procedury – powiedział, nie chcąc jednak rozwijać tematu.

- Proszę uszanujcie to, właśnie straciliśmy członka naszej rodziny – dodał.

Do tragedii doszło po pokazie zwanym "Dine with Shamu" – powiedziała Paula Gillespie, która oglądała pokaz na widowni razem ze swoją córką.

- Podczas pokazu wszystko przebiegało doskonale. Później poszłyśmy na dół, aby zobaczyć cały tułów orki w podwodnym zbiorniku – opowiadała kobieta. - Wszystko wydawało się być w porządku. Trenerka kładła się na nim, całowała jego nos i głaskała go.

Nagle jednak wszystko się zmieniło – powiedziała. - W ciągu pięciu minut trenerka leżała już na dnie basenu, a my zobaczyliśmy tylko bąbelki wydobywające się z jej nosa. To było okropne, traumatyczne przeżycie.

W tej samej chwili zabrzmiały syreny alarmowe, a pracownicy SeaWorld poprosili Gillespie, by wraz z córką wyszła z budynku.

Jeffrey Ventre, która wcześniej pracowała również jako trenerka w SeaWorld, opisywała Brancheau jako "wspaniałą trenerkę", a Tillikuma jako "wspaniałe zwierzę", które spłodziło 13 młodych.

- On jest ogromny, robi wrażenie. Ludzie patrzą na niego i mówią "Wow!". On jest też doskonałym źródłem dochodów – dodała Ventre.

Fred Felleman, konsultant morski z Seattle w stanie Waszyngton, zauważa, że trzymanie w izolacji zwierząt, które uznawane są za żyjące w grupach, będzie powodować problemy.

- Faktem jest, że nie mamy odpowiednich ośrodków, by sprostać nie tylko ich fizycznym potrzebom, ale także psychologicznym i społecznym potrzebom tych zwierząt – powiedział ekspert w rozmowie z współpracującą z CNN siecią KIRO-TV.

- Szanujemy lwy, wilki i dzikie psy i uznajemy je za fantastyczne zwierzęta, ale nie biegamy po Serengeti próbując wskoczyć im na grzbiet - dodał.

Jack Hanna, dyrektor honorowy Columbus Zoo i Aquarium w Ohio, powiedział CNN, że znał Brancheau i chciałby, by jej praca była kontynuowana.

- Takie rzeczy się zdarzają; wypadki zdarzają się w naszej pracy – powiedział. - To niebezpieczne zwierzęta. To dzikie zwierzęta - zaznaczył.

Hanna dodał jednak, że ma nadzieję, iż SeaWorld będzie kontynuował pracę z orkami.

Tych nadziei nie podziela rzecznik organizacji Ludzie na rzecz Etycznego Traktowania Zwierząt (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Uznał on ten wypadek za "tragedię, która nie musiała się wydarzyć".

Jaime Zalac mówi, że jego organizacja wzywała już SeaWorld "do zaprzestania ograniczania ssaków oceanicznych do miejsca, które swymi rozmiarami przypomina im wannę. Prosiliśmy też kierownictwo parku, aby przestali zmuszać zwierzęta do wykonywania w kółko głupich sztuczek. Nie dziwi to, że te ogromne, inteligentne zwierzęta w końcu atakują".

W 2006 roku podczas pokazu na Shamu Stadium jeden z trenerów trafił do szpitala, kiedy orka złapała go i dwukrotnie przytrzymała pod wodą.

W 1999 roku orka Tillikum była obwiniana w związku ze śmiercią 27-letniego mężczyzny, którego ciało znaleziono pływające po powierzchni wody w zbiorniku SeaWorld. Władze poinformowały wówczas, że była to najprawdopodobniej ofiara "brutalnej zabawy" orki. Biuro szeryfa ustaliło, że mężczyzna najwyraźniej ukrył się w parku aż do zamknięcia, a później wspiął się do zbiornika.

Orka ważąca prawie pięć ton "nie przywykła do tego, że w jej zbiorniku przebywają ludzie" i "nie uświadamiała sobie, że ma do czynienia z kruchą istotą ludzką" – powiedział Solomons o tamtym wypadku.

- Mężczyzna stał się ofiarą tego, co orka nazwałaby pewnie niewybredną zabawą – podsumował Solomons.

Tillikum oraz dwie inne orki miały także związek z innym wypadkiem śmiertelnym. W 1991 roku w parku morskim w Kolumbii Brytyjskiej utonął jeden z trenerów, który wpadł do zbiornika w Sea Land Marine Park Victoria i został wciągnięty pod wodę na oczach zwiedzających.

 

Killer whale attacks, kills trainer at Orlando SeaWorld as horrified spectators watch

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Wed Feb 24, 10:56 PM

By Mike Schneider, The Associated Pres

ORLANDO, Fla. - A SeaWorld killer whale snatched a trainer from a poolside platform Wednesday in its jaws and thrashed the woman around underwater, killing her in front of a horrified audience. It marked the third time the animal had been involved in a human death.

Distraught audience members were hustled out of the stadium immediately, and the park was closed.

Trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, was one of the park's most experienced. Her sister said Brancheau wouldn't want anything done to the whale that killed her because she loved the animals like children.

Brancheau was rubbing Tilikum after a noontime show when the 12,000-pound (5,500-kilogram) whale grabbed her and pulled her in, said Chuck Tompkins, head of animal training at all SeaWorld parks. It was not clear if she drowned or died from the thrashing.

Because of his size and the previous deaths, trainers were not supposed to get into the water with Tilikum, and only about a dozen of the park's 29 trainers worked with him. Brancheau had more experience with the 30-year-old whale than most.

"We recognized he was different," Tompkins said. He said no decision has been made yet about what will happen to Tilikum, such as transferring him to another facility.

A retired couple from Michigan told The Associated Press that they were among some stragglers in the audience who had stayed to watch the animals and trainers.

Eldon Skaggs, 72, said Brancheau's interaction with the whale appeared leisurely and informal at first. But then the whale "pulled her under and started swimming around with her," he said.

Skaggs said an alarm sounded and staff rushed the audience out of the stadium as workers scrambled around with nets.

Skaggs said he heard that during an earlier show the whale was not responding to directions. Others who attended the earlier show said the whale was behaving like an ornery child.

The couple left and didn't find out until later that the trainer had died.

"We were just a little bit stunned," said Skaggs' wife, Sue Nichols, 67.

Another audience member, Victoria Biniak, told WKMG-TV the whale "took off really fast in the tank, and then he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing around, and one of her shoes flew off."

Two other witnesses told the Orlando Sentinel that the whale grabbed the woman by the upper arm and tossed her around in its mouth while swimming rapidly around the tank. Brazilian tourist Joao Lucio DeCosta Sobrinho and his girlfriend were at an underwater viewing area when they suddenly saw a whale with a person in its mouth.

The couple said they watched the whale show at the park two days earlier and came back to take pictures. But on Wednesday the whales appeared agitated.

"It was terrible. It's very difficult to see the image," Sobrinho said.

A SeaWorld spokesman said Tilikum was one of three orcas blamed for killing a trainer in 1991 after the woman lost her balance and fell in the pool at Sealand of the Pacific near Victoria, British Columbia.

Steve Huxter, who was head of Sealand's animal care and training department then, said Wednesday he's surprised it happened again. He says Tilikum was a well-behaved, balanced animal.

Tilikum was also involved in a 1999 death, when the body of a man who had sneaked by SeaWorld security was found draped over him. The man either jumped, fell or was pulled into the frigid water and died of hypothermia, though he was also bruised and scratched by Tilikum.

Later Wednesday, SeaWorld in San Diego also suspended its killer whale show. It was not clear if the killer whale show has been suspended at SeaWorld's San Antonio location, which is closed until the weekend.

According to a profile of Brancheau in the Sentinel newspaper in 2006, she was one of SeaWorld Orlando's leading trainers. It was a trip to SeaWorld at age 9 that made her want to follow that career path.

"I remember walking down the aisle (of Shamu Stadium) and telling my mom, 'This is what I want to do,"' she said in the article.

Brancheau worked her way into a leadership role at Shamu Stadium during her career with SeaWorld, starting at the Sea Lion&Otter Stadium before spending 10 years working with killer whales, the newspaper said.

She also addressed the dangers of the job.

"You can't put yourself in the water unless you trust them and they trust you," Brancheau said.

Brancheau's older sister, Diane Gross, said the trainer "would not want anything done to that whale."

The trainer was married and didn't have children.

"She loved the whales like her children, she loved all of them," said Gross, of Indiana. "They all had personalities, good days and bad days."

Gross said the family viewed her sister's death as an unfortunate accident, adding: "It just hasn't sunk in yet."

Steve McCulloch, founder and program manager at the Marine Mammal Research and Conservation Program at Harbor Branch/Florida Atlantic University, said the whale may have been playing, but it is too early to tell.

"I wouldn't jump to conclusions," he said. "These are very large powerful marine mammals. They exhibit this type of behaviour in the wild.

Tompkins, the SeaWorld head trainer, said of the whale: "We have no idea what was going through his head."

Mike Wald, a spokesman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration office in Atlanta, said his agency had dispatched an investigator from Tampa.

Wednesday's death was not the first attack on whale trainers at SeaWorld parks.

In November 2006, a trainer was bitten and held underwater several times by a killer whale during a show at SeaWorld's San Diego park.

The trainer, Kenneth Peters, escaped with a broken foot. The 17-foot (5-meter) orca that attacked him was the dominant female of SeaWorld San Diego's seven killer whales. She had attacked Peters two other times, in 1993 and 1999.

In 2004, another whale at the company's San Antonio park tried to hit one of the trainers and attempted to bite him. He also escaped.

Wednesday's attack was the second time in two months that an orca trainer was killed at a marine park. On Dec. 24, 29-year-old Alexis Martinez Hernandez fell from a whale and crushed his ribcage at Loro Parque on the Spanish island of Tenerife. Park officials said the whale, a 14-year-old named Keto, made an unusual move as the two practiced a trick in which the whale lifts the trainer and leaps into the air.

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Associated Press writers Lisa Orkin Emmanuel, Laura Wides-Munoz and David Fischer in Miami, Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg and Jeremy Hainsworth in Vancouver, British Columbia, contributed to this report.

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List of maulings and other notable incidents involving captive animals

Some maulings and other notable incidents involving captive animals:

Feb. 24, 2010: An employee at SeaWorld Orlando dies after being attacked by a killer whale. A witness told WKMG-TV that the trainer had just finished explaining to the audience the show they were about to see when the whale suddenly came up from the water, grabbed the trainer around the waist and "thrashed her all around" to the point the trainer's shoe fell off.

Feb. 16, 2009: A 200-pound chimpanzee named Travis went berserk after its owner asked her friend to help lure the animal back into her house in Connecticut. The chimpanzee ripped off the friend's hands, nose, lips and eyelids. A police officer shot the chimpanzee after it tried to get into his patrol car.

Dec. 25, 2007: A Siberian tiger named Tatiana escapes from its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo, kills one man and mauls two others before being shot dead.

July 14, 2007: A 244-pound Sumatran tiger named Berani bites a zookeeper in the head several times in an exhibit yard at the San Antonio Zoo after the keeper forgot to close and lock a series of gates behind him. He survived.

Feb. 24, 2007: A 140-pound jaguar named Jorge fatally mauls a zookeeper at the Denver Zoo before being shot to death. Zoo officials said later that zookeeper Ashlee Pfaff had violated the rules by opening the door to the animal's cage.

Dec. 22, 2006: Tatiana reaches through her cage's iron bars and mauls a female zookeeper during a public feeding at the San Francisco Zoo.

Nov. 29, 2006: A 17-foot-long, 7,000-pound orca named Kasatka bites a SeaWorld's San Diego park trainer, holding him underwater several times during a show. The trainer, who had been attacked on two prior occasions in 1993 and 1999, escaped with a broken foot.

Sept. 10, 2005: Three chimpanzees from Zoo Nebraska are shot and killed after they escape from their enclosure and could not be captured. A padlock on the cage was not completely closed after being cleaned, officials said.

March 3, 2005: Two chimpanzees at the Animal Ranch wildlife sanctuary near Bakersfield, Calif., attack a man and his wife, maiming the man, before being shot to death.

July 13, 2004: A state wildlife officer fatally shoots a 600-pound tiger that escaped from the property of former Tarzan actor Steve Sipek in Loxahatchee, Fla.

March 18, 2004: A 340-pound gorilla named Jabari breaks out of its enclosure at the Wilds of Africa exhibit at the Dallas Zoo and goes on a 40-minute rampage through a forest, snatching up a toddler with his teeth and attacking three other people before being shot to death by officers.

Oct. 3, 2003: Illusionist Roy Horn is severely mauled by a tiger during the Siegfried&Roy nightly show at The Mirage casino in Las Vegas, biting him in the neck and dragging him off stage.

Sept. 28, 2003: A 300-pound gorilla named Little Joe escapes from its enclosure at Boston's Franklin Park Zoo, attacking a 2-year-old girl and a teenage zoo employee, before being tranquilized. It was the second time in two months that the animal escaped.

July 6, 1999: The orca Tilikum was also involved when the body of a man who had sneaked by Orlando SeaWorld security was found draped over him. The man either jumped, fell or was pulled into the frigid water and died of hypothermia, though he was also bruised and scratched by Tilikum.

Feb. 20, 1991: Tilikum again was in the water with two other orcas when a trainer at Sealand of the Pacific in Victoria fell into the whale pool and was forcibly submerged. It was the first time killer whales in captivity had killed. oRLANDO