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No wild orca has ever killed a human (as far as records show), and yet this one alone has killed 3 while in captivity.
Just sayin’.
Gee, you think we shouldn’t be holding a species captive that is proven to be sentient?
I feel sad for the trainer and her friends and family. But can we be really surprised this happens?
Take a social animal and isolate it away from its family, and you make a lunatic. It happens with elephants, dogs, people, all social animals.
Yep, they’ll do that.
@4 What Geni said.
Damn, though, that’s rough that it happened AT a show.
Baconcat @1 – I don’t think that they’re saying that this orca has killed before, though there is mention later in the article (which is constantly being updated) of other orca/trainer incidents.
Didn’t Neko Case write a song about one of the older incidents? Or at least reference it?
I’d like to hear Mudede’s perspective on this. It should be entertaining.
Good.
Absolutely, completely, totally what @4 Geni said.
Paul, you LIVE in the Pacific Northwest where orcas are common. Can you please refrain from referring to them as a killer whale, when they’re a species of dolphin?
@12: But killer whale sounds so much more awesome!
@4 nailed it.
@13 – and Killer Dolphin sounds ridiculous
@15 – I completely agree. Your comment made me laugh.
@13 – I have loved orcas since I was young, and their name killer whale does have a negative connotation from where it originated; however, if you look at the transient orcas, they are killers. Their learned techniques of hunting are impressive and their adaptability is amazing. So, while I can see how some people don’t like the term “killer whale,” it’s still a valid name and when used in present day, many people have forgotten the original source of the name and use it out of habit. In other countries, they’re still referred to as “black fish” so at least we acknowledge them as whales.
@ 1 – although no people have been killed by wild orcas, there is an interesting episode from the early 1900’s when a surfer was pulled from his surf board, and then quickly released. This was probably a case of mistaken identity (you’re not a seal! – just a bony thing on a piece of wood), much like what happens with sharks.
pretty sure elephants kill people in the wild.
HEY! where’s my hot tipper credit? i posted this to the other orca thread!
@19: surfers in the early 1900s?
@8, Neko Case’s song “People Got a Lotta Nerve:”
“You know, we call them killer whales
But you seem surprised
when it pinned you down to the bottom of the tank
Where you can’t turn around
It took half your leg and both your lungs.”
FUCKA YOU WHALE ANDA DOFREN!!!
My guess is the Orca was just practicing for the summer Olympics …
Max @18: Polynesians have been surfing for centuries:
http://www.surfingforlife.com/history.ht…
It might have been somewhere between 1910 and 1930, I forget the exact year, but to me, that’s early. I will advise my statement to say somewhere in the early to mid 1900s.
if you look at the transient orcas, they are killers
All predators are killers, many of them pretty fucking good at it. We should start calling humans killer apes.
wowzers, i now renounce my intention to perhaps ever maybe buy an orca card…..
because the next thing it will do is jump out of my wallet and beat down a bitch while security just stands there. oiii gah.
but not all people kill animals, they just eat the product.
@22, 23: i did not think about polynesia. i was thinking puget sound…
@27 – I think it was somewhere in California.
“It marked the third time the animal had been involved in a human death.”
The only surprising this is this doesn’t happen more often. Sea World is evil and should be permanently closed, as should all the zoos.
“Tillikum, is typically kept isolated from SeaWorld’s other killer whales and that trainers were not allowed to get in the water with him..”
Regardless of whether or not orcas are human-killers in more natural circumstances, this is a horrible way to keep a social animal. These are “pack” animals, more so than wolves. And way smarter to boot.
Wow. And I just finished reading Schatzig’s The Swarm last week. Freaky.
@27: I don’t think you COULD surf in Puget Sound. Not enough big waves, plus the water’s 55 degrees year round.
There are a lot of stories from bluewater sailors of boats being sunk by orcas – usually at night. What appears to happen is that the boat strikes one of the pod while sleeping, and the others attack and sink it (and most sailboats sink within minutes when that happens). But there has NEVER been an account of the sailors being attacked in the water. Dougal Robertson, of Survive the Savage Sea fame, was one of those who wrote about that. He said the orcas were clearly aware of the humans’ presence in the water, but lost interest in them once they’d eliminated the threat to the pod (the boat).
Nearly every case in the wild of “orca” attacks that has had the teethmarks examined has turned out to be a species of shark with very similar coloring.
@32 – we only WISH the water were 55 degrees year-round. Closer to 45 most of the time in most of the Sound. But people DO surf off the coast, at Ocean Shores and Long Beach.