The Case of the Orca That Killed Its Trainer 395
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "There's an interesting read at National Geographic by Kenneth Brower that probes the case of Tilikum, the homicidal killer whale, who killed his first trainer, 20-year-old Keltie Byrne in 1991. Then in July 6, 1999, a 27-year-old man who stayed after the park closed and evaded security to enter the orca tank was found dead and nude, draped over Tilikum's back with his genitals bitten off. Tilikum's most recent victim was Dawn Brancheau, the SeaWorld trainer he crushed, dismembered, and partially swallowed in 2010. 'Almost all students of orca believe that they are deranged by captivity, some more than others. Tilikum's record puts him at one end of a continuum. There have been dozens of attacks on trainers by an assortment of orcas in the marine parks around the world. [The movie] "Blackfish" shows video from several of these episodes at SeaWorld,' writes Brower. 'What is remarkable about Orcinus orca in marine parks is not these rare episodes. What is remarkable is their monumental forbearance.' For its part SeaWorld is attempting to cast the filmmakers as the true villains, characterizing them as anti-captivity zealots. The company says '"Blackfish" is inaccurate and misleading and, regrettably, exploits a tragedy that remains a source of deep pain for Dawn Brancheau's family, friends and colleagues.'"
Disney movie (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Disney movie (Score:5, Funny)
Willy eat me.
Come on. Why not just "Feed Willy"?
Started under Bush (Score:5, Funny)
I just want to point out that though these killings continue today, they were started while George Bush Sr. was in office.
Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Insightful)
First, I do believe it is entirely plausible that captivity is a negative thing for sea mammals.
However, statements like "almost all students of orca believe" are not helping make their point. I assume they found all the "students of orca" (what does that even mean? Do you sit in a classroom with an orca at the board?) and polled them at a scientific level? Even if they did, what does "almost all" mean?'
Let's have numbers here. Opinions of experts. Show your work. Until or unless you do, I'm going to dismiss that statement as really meaning "I believe this and some other people I know also do," which isn't close to a consensus.
There is way too much crap like this in "journalism" these days, and I'm calling it out when I see it.
Re:Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Interesting)
Number of attacks on humans by Orcas not in captivity: 1 documented.
Number of attacks on humans by Orcas in captivity: > 27 documented (3 fatal).
Killer whale attacks on humans
Re:Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Informative)
Missed a closing tag.
Killer whale attacks on humans [wikipedia.org]
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Missed a closing tag.
Killer whale attacks on humans [wikipedia.org]
"On April 1, 1989, Nootka IV of Sealand of the Pacific pulled her trainer, Henrietta Huber, into the whale tank after the 6-year-old female bit down while the trainer had her hand in the mouth of the orca in order to scratch its tongue. Huber needed several stitches in order to close her wounds"
Not one of the "almost all" students of orca.
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Mind you if you divide the attacks by the number of people in close contact with Orcas in both situation, the wild Orcas would look like human eating machines.
The number of people with the opportunity to come within 100 meters of a wild Orca would be extremely small, let alone within biting range.
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Some of the attacks in captivity look likely to have been provoked by the humans as well, which is something less likely to happen in the wild.
I can't tell you for sure what happened here, but it sure doesn't sound like the orca initiated it:
Why was he nude? Why specifically his genitals bitten off? My guess is that it
Re:Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Funny)
"Why was he nude? Why specifically his genitals bitten off?"
Think of it as evolution in action.
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Darwin was just making sure :)
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Why was he nude?
That orca had a pretty blowhole.
Re:Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Informative)
Not really. People kayak around them all of the time. If they were particularly aggressive, we would know about it. Sea Lions are more obnoxious. Not that I would go out and try and pet one, but I've been within 50 yards of them before. It does get the heart going - the could crunch the kayak or small boat and find the chewy nugget inside but they don't seem to care one way or the other.
Re: Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Interesting)
The Orcas only ate the tounge of the humpbacks, the rest they left for the humans. I've been to the small museam in Eden several times over the years, it's fantastic, one of the best in Australia IMHO. It's main drawcard is the skeleton of "Old Tom" on display, several of his front teeth are missing due to being worn through by the harpoon rope, one tooth still in place has a large grove in it from gripping the rope.
Re: Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Informative)
Orcas are members of the dolphin family (delphinidae) of toothed whales (odontoceti), which means they belong to the order of whales (cetacea). I.e. orcas most definitely are whales. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orcinus_orca).
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Orcas are members of the dolphin family (delphinidae) of toothed whales (odontoceti), which means they belong to the order of whales (cetacea). I.e. orcas most definitely are whales. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orcinus_orca).
If you are willing to state that all dolphins (including orcas) and porpoises are whales, then you are 100% correct and some zoologists will agree with you.
But other zoologists will claim that whales, porpoises, and dolphins are three clearly distinct suborders of Cetacea, and thus dolphins (including orcas) cannot be whales.
I'm not a zoologist so, as long as you acknowledge that orcas are dolphins, I don't give a $#+ whether you call them whales o not.
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Cetacea is the order of *whales*. "Cetacea" derives from the greek for whale! So if porpoises and dolphins are cetacea, they are whales.
There are 2 branches within the order of whales, the toothed whales and the baleen whales. Toothed whales include porpoises, dolphins, etc. The baleen whales are the filter feeders, with baleen combs instead of teeth, such as the right whale, blue whale, humpback, etc.
Re: Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:4, Insightful)
This isn't really at all true. Orcas are whales, that particular suggestion otherwise is completely false.
But regarding feeding habits, they vary greatly in this species, some groupings dine entirely on smaller fish and hunt in packs to circle them, herd them up, and eat them, whilst others, particularly those in the Antarctic are solo hunters and hunt larger prey like seals and penguins. I believe Orcas off the coast of California work together differently again to attack calves of larger (Grey IIRC?) whales.
Whilst the example you give is a local population it cannot be extrapolated to the species as a whole which has very distinct populations with very distinct traits.
They're a versatile species with differing and complex feeding habits depending on where they live so it's not something that can be trivially generalised as to the habits.
If anything I'd wager this scenario as in TFA is an example of killer whales adapting their habits to another new habitat we've created for them - the artificial living area in which they're dependent on us for food and entertainment and if we can't fulfil that then it's not surprising they've decided to use us as food/entertainment.
Re:Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Informative)
"The number of people with the opportunity to come within 100 meters of a wild Orca would be extremely small, let alone within biting range."
Rubbish. I swam with them in the fjords of Norway. I was one of many tens of thousands of tourists that do this every year.
This is far more people than swim with them in captivity that only includes trainers and authorised personnel.
You're jumping to a conclusion based on a theory you've simply made up but that is false. If anything your point acts counter to the conclusion you've come to - I'd wager given the size of the tourist industry that far more people encounter them in the wild with far less experience of the animals than the experienced people who get injured and killed by them in captivity. If the threat was equivalent in the wild to how it is in captivity then tourists wouldn't even be allowed to swim with them because it'd almost certainly be deemed too dangerous, but that's not the case.
Re:Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Funny)
you forgot
Killer Whalenado. the dumb busty blond gets eaten first.
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They're shooting Tomorrow and Wednesday.
SFX will be added Thursday.
Editing... if they have time Friday morning?
Meanwhile in Antarctica ... (Score:2)
Re:Meanwhile in Antarctica ... (Score:4, Funny)
*waves hand*
These aren't the prey you're looking for.
Move along.
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Given that humans routinely swim in close proximity with captive Orcas multiple times a day, not to mention ride on their back and stick their head in Orcas mouth for a show, while any human contact with wild Orcas is extremely rare, I agree with your point that Orcas not in captivity are statistically far more dangerous.
Re:Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to mention the chances of anybody making it back to complain of a wild Orca attach is pretty low.
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...y human contact with wild Orcas is extremely rare...
There is an entire whale (orca) watching tourist sector here in the Pacific Nothwest to GUARANTEE you will spot some orcas. Granted you will not be swimming with them, but there are many companies with multiple trips daily. This doesn't include private boats or kayaks. Many people, including scientists, say the wild orcas have a real sense of curiosity, and will come up to the boats to see what is going on. If they really were that aggressive, it would be too easy for them to grab a snack or two.
Re:Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:4, Informative)
>any human contact with wild Orcas is extremely rare
Not at all, there are many places where tourists swim with Orcas just as they do with other dolphins. Someone a little way up pointed out that thousands of tourists in Norway do so every year. So on one side - trained professionals w/captive orcas - many attacks. Ignorant tourists with wild orcas - not so much.
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Number of humans in close contact in an enclosed space with an Orca not in captivity: 0.
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If the Orca were human it would be a serial killer.
Re:Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Funny)
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Orcas like eating other mammals. Usually seals, sea lions and other whales though.
Sharks like eating fish.
Re:Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Informative)
If they attack/kill a human in the ocean, who's gonna document them?
The other humans at the scene maybe? A single human alone in the ocean is not as common as you seem to think.
Orca's hunt in packs, and coordinate their attacks. So they might communicate to organize an attack on a group of humans. Here is a video [youtube.com] of a pod of orcas executing a very organized training session to teach the juveniles orcas how to isolate and kill a crabeater seal on the pack ice. It is hard for me to believe that they could do this without some sort of high level communication. They are very intelligent animals.
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Do you sit in a classroom with an orca at the board?) and polled them at a scientific level? Even if they did, what does "almost all" mean?'
There were bits of fishy stuff in two of the articles I read as well
I remember reading of Daniel Dukes the person who was found dead apparently swimming with Tillikum but that's all I read, it was a very short piece.
Got a lot more from their local paper but the way it was written kept me looking for the next literary er whatchamacallit's
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/ [orlandosentinel.com]
marijuana-smoking drifter with a string of petty arrests. (drug addict)
a worn-out Florida Department of Motor Vehicles identification ca
Re:Almost all students of orca believe... (Score:5, Informative)
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"Killer whale" (Score:5, Insightful)
The name says it all, really. Orca are carnivores, their natural prey includes seals - which are of comparable size and, for all I know, tastiness to a human.
The way the species has been rebranded as a "dolphin" is one of the triumphs of marketing over reality. They're whales, and they're killers. Get in a tank with one at your own risk.
Re:"Killer whale" (Score:5, Interesting)
Not to mention they are rather sadistic in their treatment of their prey in the wild.
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Except as a rule they dont attack humans in the wild. Even the one documented attack was a non-fatal one.
If that orca wanted to kill the human he wouldnt have let him go. I even suspect the killer whale mistook
a surfer in a black wetsuit swimming among seals for a seal. You dont swim in the waters of northern california without one.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2245&dat=19960117&id=GIo1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=QiEGAAAAIBAJ&pg=3872,1646286 [google.com]
Why dont orcas attack humans? 1) Orcas that attack humans
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Humans are of little nutritional value to Orcas. We don't have a crap load of fat. Not the humans that regularly engage in water sports anyway.
Re:"Killer whale" (Score:5, Insightful)
Plus, 'Sea World' is pretty much a life term in Supermax, except with more gawkers, for something of the size (not well proportioned to live in a swimming pool) and intelligence (relatively high) of a killer whale.
If you are a lifer anyway, and the guard is dumb enough to come into your cell, why not shiv him just on principle?
Re:"Killer whale" (Score:5, Insightful)
More so now that it knows that it's situation does not change when it attacks people. They aren't stupid animals and this one figured it out quick.
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They aren't stupid animals and this one figured it out quick.
1991, 1999, 2010. One attack every decade is "quick"?
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Can you think of any people who have killed once a decade, been in the news for it and not been punished? They probably stopped doing shows for a while but that's not really a negative change for the whale, just a change that it would notice.
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Plus, 'Sea World' is pretty much a life term in Supermax, except with more gawkers, for something of the size (not well proportioned to live in a swimming pool) and intelligence (relatively high) of a killer whale.
And the gawkers have less intelligence than their usual diet...
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Orca are carnivores, their natural prey includes seals - which are of comparable size and, for all I know, tastiness to a human.
No, seals definitely taste better.
Re:"Killer whale" (Score:5, Funny)
Orca are carnivores, their natural prey includes seals - which are of comparable size and, for all I know, tastiness to a human.
No, seals definitely taste better.
Says someone who clearly doesn't know how to properly prepare human.
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Everything tastes like chicken, or does chicken taste like everything?
Re:"Killer whale" (Score:4, Informative)
The name says it all, really. Orca are carnivores, their natural prey includes seals - which are of comparable size and, for all I know, tastiness to a human.
The way the species has been rebranded as a "dolphin" is one of the triumphs of marketing over reality. They're whales, and they're killers. Get in a tank with one at your own risk.
Oh fuck you're so wrong. Shut up, quit spouting incorrect drivel, and grow a brain.
They ARE dolphins, and not true whales [wikipedia.org]:
The killer whale is one of 35 species in the oceanic dolphin family, which first appeared about 11 million years ago. The killer whale lineage probably branched off shortly thereafter. Although it has morphological similarities with the pygmy killer whale, the false killer whale and the pilot whales, a study of cytochrome b gene sequences by Richard LeDuc indicated that its closest extant relatives are the snubfin dolphins of the genus Orcaella.
Re:"Killer whale" (Score:5, Insightful)
So they're Killer Dolphins then.
You can call them Killer Butterflies if you want. The point is, they're PREDATORS. You can train them, but you can't tame them. Sooner or later, they're gonna decide you look better than the fishes you're tossing at them, and have themselves a little snack.
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I think the previous poster's point was figurative, not literal; they were saying that it's been rebranded as "dolphin" (ala 'fun, playful sea creature that does tricks for humans') as opposed to the murderous-sounding 'killer whale'. For people - who are roughly the same size/shape of the orcas' main prey animals - to get into a tank with them is either insanity or a staggering level of naivete.
So aside from your pedantry, their point was correct: that they are top-tier predators who probably haven't "hum
Re:"Killer whale" (Score:5, Informative)
The way the species has been rebranded as a "dolphin" is one of the triumphs of marketing over reality.
"Rebranded"? Orcas belong to the family Delphinidae, the oceanic dolphins. They're commonly referred to as "whales" but that's not technically accurate. But hey, don't let science get in the way of your little speech about "marketing."
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Orcas are delphinidae, which *are* a part of the cetacean order. So they are very much technically whales, and it is quite correct to call them that.
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Seals and humans don't taste much alike at all. Seal is a rather bloody meat and tastes a lot like fish (not suprising since that's what they eat). Humans are said to taste a lot like pork from all accounts.
(not suprising since that's what they eat).
What you eat (Score:3)
(not suprising since that's what they eat).
If that were true in all cases we'd taste like Cheetos.
Re:"Killer whale" (Score:5, Funny)
Not a surprise, really (Score:5, Insightful)
You take a highly intelligent creature, put it in captivity and then get in its enclosure. What the heck do you think is going to happen? It's amazing more people are not killed and a testament to the tolerance of the orcas.
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Or good, old-fashioned, learned helplessness! It's amazing what sorts of useful institutions that little quirk can keep operational!
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You take a highly intelligent creature, put it in captivity and then get in its enclosure. What the heck do you think is going to happen?
Hmmm...
A gobble gone wrong? Worst blow-hole job ever?
What did you think was going to happen? (Score:5, Insightful)
We are locking up intelligent animals for our amusement. Animals much bigger and stronger than humans. Of course some of them are going to kill us. That's what we get.
Re:What did you think was going to happen? (Score:5, Funny)
Plus, they must have gotten really tired of being fed fish all the time.
Where are the editors? (Score:2, Insightful)
Why do the editors continue to approve submissions by " Hugh Pickens DOT Com"? It's clearly spam/advertisement for some crappy movie, but I've seen it a few times in submitted stories. C'mon now.
Vote or die. (Score:4, Informative)
Users have the ability to mod and tag the submitted stories. You could have modded this submission down and tagged it "spam" before it hit the front page. You didn't. You have no one to blame but yourself.
http://slashdot.org/recent [slashdot.org] is what you are looking for.
Dangerous! (Score:3, Insightful)
These Orca things are dangerous! to stop people voluntarily getting into the tanks with them I suggest a name that's also a warning. Maybe 'Killer aquatic mammal'.
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Or "Sea Orks".
Animal Rights Group Alarmism (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes...orcas are killers. Seen the wild they will use a baby seal like a volley ball. Torturing it for quite some time before it dies. They are 6-ton predators who rule the waters. Evolved natural killing machines. It is a risk to swim with them of course.
But for the most part they don't kill humans. In fact some of the deaths have been result of the orcas playing too hard and not fully understanding that their human companions are land based creatures not capable of being underwater too long. Some, I guess I'll call them 'water show entertainment' deaths, were because the whales kept a trainer in their mouths for fun but ended up swimming beneath the surface for two or three minutes. Drowning their human trainer.
But the safety records are fine. If the Animal Right's Groups are saying that the wild animals should not be kept captive because they are dangerous to humans it is a terrible argument. The overwhelming majority of captive animals don't kill or harm humans. If these groups were against animal captivity they need to argue about the exploitation of animals and effectively animal slavery for corporate profits. Instead they are wasting time exploiting deaths, many accidental, many not even of actual trainers but of idiots who jumped over the fence to play with killer whales, giant monkeys, and fully grown lions.
This is the same alarmist response the news media does whenever a shark attack kills someone. "Oh my god it was 20 feet long...fin those sharks....for the children". Sharks kill a few people a year and there are millions of sharks and millions of humans who swim in the ocean. No need to sensationalize.
Personally I don't think that most zoo animals enjoy captivity. But most zoo animals are smart enough to know that they are at the mercy of their human masters. The humans provide them clean living conditions, food, and water. They can get a whale to swim ten laps and fly out of the water for a fish treat. But sometimes a killer whale remembers that animal instinct and forgets his training. The trainers know the risks. It's not like these whales are flying out of the stands like a NASCAR crash gone wrong and killing people in the crowd.
Re:Animal Rights Group Alarmism (Score:5, Funny)
It's not like these whales are flying out of the stands like a NASCAR crash gone wrong and killing people in the crowd.
Yet.
Re:Animal Rights Group Alarmism (Score:4, Funny)
They're already doing Sharknado 2.
Perhaps they could have a spinoff. Typh-orca.
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Re:Animal Rights Group Alarmism (Score:4, Interesting)
If these groups were against animal captivity they need to argue about the exploitation of animals and effectively animal slavery for corporate profits
They talk about that all the time. Even if you disagree with them, how have you not heard of them talking about such things, almost to an excess of some anti-captivity spiels being a thinly veiled anti-corporate spiel? If anything, it happens so much it gets tuned out, and most people don't care. That is why some groups will try to go at it from different angles. If they know the caring about the animal angle doesn't work, they try things that have more direct impact on humans.
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But the safety records are fine.
They're acceptable, but they're not fine. One of the points made by a former trainer when talking about the movie is that being an orca trainer should be classified by OSHA as a dangerous job, which I gather would cost Sea World a bunch of money in extra pay, safety precautions and insurance. But because of lobbying by Sea World, it's still classified as being no more dangerous than office work.
Re:Animal Rights Group Alarmism (Score:5, Insightful)
First off Orca's don't kill humans in the wild because they swim in cold waters that don't have humans. It's not like they are native to the coastal Florida beaches. The bit about animals being smart enough to know who the human masters are. That is factually untrue. In most zoos the protocols are all about keeping the zoo keepers out of harms way of the animals. Feeding the animals is one of the most dangerous parts of the job. Making a grab for a keepers during feeding time is quite common and equipment and protocol are designed to reduce the risks.
Make no mistake, most real zoos wouldn't even fathom having an Orca show with close trainer interaction. There's a night and day difference between non-profit zoos and a multi billion dollar entertainment company.
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Well... maybe not large zoos. But at the smaller end, there are plenty of zoolike entities that deal with big cats (leopards, jaguars, tigers, lions) that have official policies against "fraternizing with the animals", but quietly look the other way when a few select individuals get some quality time with the kitties. I'd say the fatality rates are probably pretty comparable... every few years, someone gets killed under circumstances that, in retrospect, make it clear that the individual wasn't quite in tun
The trainers don't know the risks. (Score:3)
Do they? Because the last time I checked, SeaWorld was still claiming that Tilikum was not actually trying to kill Dawn Brancheau when it grabed her by the arm, crushed her, dismembered her, and then ate her arm. They also claim the other two deaths were not deliberate (or that they don't know) when a review of the facts definitely indicates that Tilikum killed these people. I can't imagine anyone in their right mind working with this animal if they were in full possession of the
Tenuous relationships with animals (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Tenuous relationships with animals (Score:5, Insightful)
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I've always been fascinated by people who keep dangerous pets or work with them. They often seem to hold the belief that their relationship with these creatures transcends their instinctive nature to kill.
Back in the Seventies there was an article on these folks in the short-lived US edition of Geo Magazine. The writer interviewed some, and noticed a recurring thread: they stoutly maintained that Leo would never hurt them; they had a good-sized bandage somewhere on them; and the first thing out of their mouths was a lame description of a kitchen accident...
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I've always been fascinated by people who keep dangerous pets or work with them. They often seem to hold the belief that their relationship with these creatures transcends their instinctive nature to kill.
Back in the Seventies there was an article on these folks in the short-lived US edition of Geo Magazine. The writer interviewed some, and noticed a recurring thread: they stoutly maintained that Leo would never hurt them; they had a good-sized bandage somewhere on them; and the first thing out of their mouths was a lame description of a kitchen accident...
Battered owner syndrome.
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I've always been fascinated by people who keep dangerous pets or work with them. They often seem to hold the belief that their relationship with these creatures transcends their instinctive nature to kill. And for a time it seems that they are right. But you only have to piss off a grizzly bear one time, and all of a sudden you're on the latest episode of "People Who Domesticated Animals Which Shouldn't Have Been Domesticated."
I should like to see that show - what time and channel is it on?
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Nearly ALL pets are dangerous. Birds, cats dogs, ALL can maim or kill you if they are sufficiently motivated.
The same is true of a medium to large dog. Bears are at least smart enough (like dogs) to know better. There are locations in Canada where people feed polar bears quite well, in exchange for them not eating their dogs, and they behave quite well. Watching polar bear
Genes matter (Score:5, Interesting)
Citatioin needed? (Score:2)
"Almost all students of orca believe that they are deranged by captivity, some more than others."
I really wish the author had gone into more detail on this point, it sounds interesting. The closest he got was a citation from a psychologist who said, we really should be careful applying psychological terms to animals that diverged from us 200 million years ago.
Capturer, not trainer (Score:2)
He killed his perceived capturer. If you capture and lock up an animal, you shouldn't expect anything else.
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Yup. I'm cheering for the orcas here. Kill 'em all, Tilikum' kill 'em all,
Stand your ground Willy! (Score:2)
An orca that kills a human trying to capture it in the waters of florida is legally in the right.
The Most Dangerous Animal (Score:2)
Frustrated designer (Score:5, Funny)
was found dead and nude, draped over Tilikum's back with his genitals bitten off
He was just trying to demonstration his new high-fashion concept of a Eunuch Tunic.
Ron White said it best... (Score:5, Funny)
This is an apex predator (Score:5, Informative)
1) Killer whale teeth. [seaworld.org]
2) Killer whale skull. [usgs.gov]
The killer whale can weigh up to 22,000 lbs for males and 16,000 lbs for females, and be up to 32 feet and 28 feet long respectively. A great white shark can reach up to 5,000 lbs and 20 feet long.
I saw a PBS video showing great whites feeding on seals at a beach. Suddenly the great whites fled and shortly thereafter, orcas showed up to begin feeding. The narrator noted that orcas can kill great whites. [telegraph.co.uk]
The male killer whales at Seaworld weigh 5-6 tons. [seaworld.org] It's quite remarkable that these orcas have not killed more trainers.
Streisand effect at work (Score:5, Insightful)
From TFA:-
I don't think free publicity was what SeaWorld had in mind. I have not even heard of this movie before this, now I have to admit I'm curious.
what does a 6 tonne killer whale eat? (Score:5, Funny)
whomever he pleases
Re:Ahem (Score:5, Informative)
homo human being + Latin: caedere to cut, kill
this use is entirely appropriate. the 'homo' in homocide is an objective use rather than a subjective one. it means that a human is being killed, rather than that a human is doing the killing.
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BTW in most barbershops in the USA they have a jar of disinfectant where they soak the combs, brushes and clipper
Re:Ahem (Score:4, Funny)
That would actually be a liquid that kills beards. Still not accurate.
Homicide, however, fits perfectly in this case. Would-be pedants take note, m-w are idiots and always have been. If you cant find several places where they are wrong and you know they are wrong, you are not qualified to engage in pedantry.
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Slashdot, bringing pedantry to a new level.
Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. If my wife or kids get tired of my pedantry, I can just point them here. They ain't heard nuttin' yet.
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No, it doesn't mean what you or the moderators apparently think it means.
A homocide is a killing of a human. Someone or something which kills or tries to kill humans is thus homocidal.
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Homicidal . . . I don't think that word means what you think it means.
So, then... Patricide isn't when a father is killed? Ah, then it must be when he flushed my goldfish.
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I assume this wasn't done for half a dozen reasons stacking up, from it's too big, too hard to let go, how dare you, etc.
I think you left out "You can't buy a new orca for the price of a dolphin"...
Re: (Score:2)
And don't forget what happened the last time someone tried to destroy a whale [youtube.com].
Re:It could be worse.... (Score:4, Informative)
homicide
Noun
The deliberate and unlawful killing of one person by another; murder.
Because then we would be talking about whale on whale crime... I don't care about that... "Whale on Whale Action" might get me to click... sorry, just morbid curiosity...