Tastes Like Seal Meat!

It's an image problem, basically. Like changing rapeseed to canola, this could all be fixed by calling the critters, Player Whales, no?

Is there a difference between "killer dogs" and "killer whales" in law?

Don't animals who kill humans "get put down"?

Indeed, there was "no sign of foul play". Which calls into question their definition of "play", in my opinion.

I thought the trainer died from falling into a pool that container a killer whale which had a track record of killing trainers who had fallen into it's pool.

Maybe the trainers should have a winched saftey cable, like high-rise window cleaners have, attached to an I-beam over the pool.

I'm unsure what part of killer whale the MSM doesn't understand.

I call them "snuggly-fish", so this has all been a huge shock to me.

"Maybe the trainers should have a winched saftey cable, like high-rise window cleaners have, attached to an I-beam over the pool. "

Errr, I don't think that would be a good idea since some of their tricks include jumping up to snatch treats suspended over the pool. Just sayin'

I know it is hard to believe but I know a mature adult that said Orcas don't kill things. I asked what they ate. Shrimp and stuff. Where did you hear that? An attendant at an aquarium. Why do they call them Killer Whales? Loaded up the vid of a pod creating a wave to wash a seal off a pan of ice. I'm mean.

Do they "play with" dawgs too?

Texas Canuck, it depends on how high the orca can jump and how high the I-beam is suspended over the pool.

Instead of a winch it could even be an emergency counter weight attached to the other end of the cable.
The counter weight drops and pulls the trainer up and out of reach to a high I-beam with each end set up on a suspended ring the goes around the entire pool.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

I wonder if PETA considers these mammals as "sea kittens" also.

i thought of willie horton immediately...btw has count iggy been asked about the soft on crime Lllieberal party's involvement in allowing a convicted murderer to escape our jurisdiction and KILL AGAIN!

"No signs of foul play" is priceless.

Now that my dad is longer with us...I must assume the role of curmudgeon.....
Wadda-ya expect?
Bulls, Boars and stallions....and obviously male killer whales.
"Deadlier than the male" is feminist BS.
FINAL ANSWER!

That whale has killed two times before. Either release it back into the ocean or shoot the damn thing.

Yes, being clamped in the jaws of a 4,000 pound cetacean and held underwater for ten or fifteen minutes can, in some cases, lead to both trauma and drowning.

The medical examiner's verdict reminds me of this courtroom exchange, from the book Disorder In The American Courts:

Attorney: "Do you recall the time that you examined the body?"
Witness: "The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m."
Attorney: "And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?"
Witness: "If not, he was by the time I finished."

and I thought killer whales were the panda bears of the ocean

A bunch of Greenies went off whale watching near here (Vancouver Island) only to get to see two of the cuddly creatures playing volleyball with a seal. I guess it tenderizes the meat but it also certainly traumatized the 'whale-huggers'.

Can we really call that whale a "killer"?
Is issue really that black and white?

Well, given that the beastie is not going to be put down because it plays an "important" part in the social lives of the other orcas, it seems that the beast's life is more important than human life.

So, I suggest the following ... the park begin a sort of gladiatorial games ... where naughty humans are tossed to the orca ... imagine the revenue ... imagine the sport.

"... The counter weight drops and pulls the trainer up and out of reach to a high I-beam with each end set up on a suspended ring the goes around the entire pool...

Leaving the trainer's legs below in the pool, firmly clamped in the Ork's jaws.

So, because this is a male mammal and the trainer was a female, does this have anything to do with pheromones and the whole reproductive cycle thing? I don't want to get overly graphic, but was she having her period and would that have put the killer whale into a higher state of instinct?

Some scientific questions have to be asked, because tragedies like this can be stopped or reduced. Would the medical examiner have asked this but the media not? Being politically correct and all at the MSM!

michael st.paul's

This counter weight drops before the orca gets the trainer.

The trainer falls into the pool, the trainer hits a portable panic button strapped to trainer's ________.

Too tough for you to envision?
Probably.
It's better than the nothing solution you proposed.

I live in the 21st century, the age of microstate electronics, how about you?

I think it's hilarious.Again another dumbf*&k human thinks they are at the top of the food chain,and dear little orkie would never dare attack.Score another one for Darwin and natural selection.

Cut the ME some slack. He has to identify the cause and manner of death i.e. that the victim died of the trauma/drowning and that it was accidental i.e. there's no evidence she collapsed from a heart attack, fell into the pool etc. etc.; or that she got whacked on the noggin and then fell into the pool, or that she wasn't drugged by someone hoping that would cause her to fall into the pool, or that she hadn't written a note saying "goodbye cruel world" and jumped into the pool etc. etc. etc. I know the routine, having worked as a rural ME for several years.

that the victim died of the trauma/drowning and that it was accidental
~DrD

I'd call it death by misadventure.
I'm sure there will be an expensive lawsuit by surviving relatives and that will cause some expensive safety procedures and devices to be implemented to insure it doesn't happen again as easily.

this is frightening , all the killer whales I have seen outside of the oceans are harmlessly walking down the street with Orlon squirrels and hairy legged birkenstock wearing diesal dykes protesting anything and everything.
they must be females orcas , not those testosterone driven males.

Oz: "death by misadventure" -- interestingly, it would be a tough one to classify and might actually fall under the "unclassified" classification in some provinces. It's been years since I did this kind of work, and I don't remember how the activity of predatory animals was assigned since I never had to deal with any such cases. It's almost like a drug overdose. The user knows they are playing with fire but doesn't set out to kill themselves with the drug. Never-the-less the death results from their own behavior. While I'm sure the trainer in no way intended what occurred, she must have had some knowledge of an unquantifiable element of danger associated with it -- kind of like the tiger trainer in Vegas who got mauled. Sad none the less that this happened. Maybe it's well past time that the whale were set free if workable or treated more like the predator it clearly is.

misadventure [ˌmɪsədˈvɛntʃə]
n
1. an unlucky event; misfortune
2. (Law) Law accidental death not due to crime or negligence

I'm sorry to belabor the point but Oz is under the assumption that the whale lunch fell into the pool and could have hit a panic button or something. Fact is the KILLER Whale is a wild animal and cannot be guaranteed to perform according to Disney. Your idea smells like more of the crash helmets on toddler nanny state than common sense. So envision that, eh.

Warren Z, your idea of putting down the "bad" whale is in the same mindset as Oz.

My rant is finished, I now return you to regular blogging... sorry about that Kate.

Once, when I was much more naive and unaware, i asked my uncle, a sheep farmer, why the sheepdogs did not attack the sheep. He replied that his dogs came from a long line of dogs that did not attack sheep. A dog that did, was killed as were all its offspring. This is a Killer Whale - a wild animal - but it swims with people. If it is aggrsssive, kill it or release it into the sea. A human being is dead because no action was taken on previous aggressive behaviour.

glacierman at 5:52 PM

my first thought when I read about this a day ago

and as to why we waste money on an autopsy to determine that some one who drowned actually drowned, it's because we have become such a litigious world that the ridiculous has become the norm

Ever wonder why the attendants at Marineland are rather diligent about making sure people don't put their hands over the edge or lean over the pool?

Whale steaks.. $2.00 a pound.

Sealskin coat thrown in free!

Curious, that's more about stopping the spread of disease, etc...

It's to protect the Orca's.

Oh no Willy!

Bad killer whale, baaaaad.

Capital punishment? Or time served and out in 5 years?

Knight 99,

ultimately depends on time spent in pre-trial custody (recently went down from 2:1 credit to 1.5:1 credit).

Sea World has its own Orcinus orca Dexter. Psycho Whale will travel.
This Orca ought to have seen a cannery ages ago. Maybe 3 lives would have been spared if the animal people would have put it down the first time.
JMO

"...Capital punishment? Or time served and out in 5 years?

Posted by: Knight 99 at February 26, 2010 1:11 AM "

This animal has been doing time for a long period. I'm not PETA freak but really if a huge animal like this is confined for so long can you blame it for being a bit ditzy?

As a matter of fact they are not known to attack and eat people in the wild which makes one think that they are intelligent enough to be cautious. Actually this incident was not an attack so much as some rough play by a huge distressed animal who probably couldn't discern the trainers relative fragility.

Yes these animals should be free and not used for entertainment.

Shouldnt it be Serial Killer Whale.

What part of "Killer Whale" don't we understand?

Ah my - of course the whale is a killer: it killed.
Is it a murderer? Murder is a question of law, killing is a matter of fact.

I'm sorry to belabor the point but Oz is under the assumption that the whale lunch fell into the pool and could have hit a panic button or something.
~Texas Canuck

Yes, I was writing under the assumption that she fell into the pool.
Why?
That is what I read when the story first broke.

Veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, died after the orca grabbed her from a poolside platform and dragged her under the water.

I was not aware that the whale grabbed her from a poolside platform.

This is the original report that I read 2 days ago.

A 40-year-old trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando has died in an incident involving a killer whale.

Jim Solomons of the Orlando County Sheriff's Office, said the trainer either slipped or fell into the whale's tank, where she was then fatally injured.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8535652.stm

So nobody watched the movie "Jurrasic park" and came to some very hard dose of reality conclusions?
Turn the snuggy whale loose and watch how many folks get traumatically injured and drowned in a killer whale version of jaws.
Kill the poor creature and fail to realize that holding a free open ocean ranging animal for entertainment of tourist and to make money is just wrong.
"What we gonna do now Bubba?"

Oz; yeh right.
http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/texas/images/s/texas-sea-world.jpg
And if someone brought their little rugrat into YOUR office, and the little puke started physically harassing you, you'd get down on all fours and play pony? (I'm not suggesting you'd drown the brat...)

I think Barry is spot on. Turn this whale loose, and for one thing it will have trouble adjusting to life outside a tank (killer whales live in family pods and they have to learn how to fend for themselves, they aren't purely instinctual) -- that's a bit cruel in and of itself, but if you factor in the outside chance that he could get into his old family pod -- well, they learn hunting techniques from each other, so do you want a pod of killer whales out in the ocean somewhere who have learned that man meat is on the menu? The most sensible and humane thing to do is to euthanize this whale...and seriously reconsider keeping killer whales (in fact any form of cetacean) cooped up in tanks as Disneyesque entertainment -- they are wild animals, that's where they ought to be (spoken as somebody who's worked with zookeepers and circus trainers and doesn't hold a thing against them, but...).

"Alpha lo-o-o-o-ve Maaaaaaa..."

Texas Canuck: If you can offer a better solution then I would like to hear it.

Cal2, I have only one thing to say, and that thing is - ROFLMAO! Well done. :)

black Mamba, that's the funniest ever!

I call them "snuggly-fish", so this has all been a huge shock to me.
Posted by: Black Mamba at February 25, 2010 2:56 PM