During a show at Seaworld yesterday entitled “Dine with Shamu”, where park guests can have dinner and watch a whale show up close, a whale named Tilikum purposely drowned a female trainer.
Tilikum is an 11,000 pound killer whale and people watching the show said he was not following commands and after becoming more agitated, swam around the tank and leapt out of the water to grab her in its mouth and dragged her into the water.
“He just took off like a bat out of you know what, took off really fast and came back around to the glass, jumped up, and grabbed the trainer by the waist and started shaking her violently,” witness Victoria Biniak said.
Tilikum had also previously killed two other people: a part-time trainer in 1991 who he also dragged in and a person who snuck into his tank after the park closed in 1999.
Fuck you Joel. You’re a fucked up human being.
I’m Dawn’s sister, and you’re going to hell. You better start treating people with respect, or you might have some serious issues in life.
I apologize… the joke is in the worst possible taste (that’s why i thought it was funny). I did not expect anyone beyond my 3 regular readers to ever see this.
I am sorry for your loss.
Joel, I’ve received your apology note. However, it simply isn’t enough to subdue the additional pain you’ve caused myself and our grieving family.
I hope one day I am able to find it in my heart to forgive you, but for now it’s nearly impossible to find forgiveness.
Wow! Joel you are real idiot. I admire Dawns love for animals and her bravery. She knew the risks and her love for them made her want to work with them anyway.
Tinna,
My deepest condolences and empathy are with you and Dawn’s loved ones. I lost my little brother to murder 2 years ago, so I know how bad this hurts and how hurtful the media can be. I pray for you guys, and may Dawn rest in peace. I admire her.
I understand that the joke was in poor taste, but this is a pretty funny series of weird human attempts at dominating nature gone wrong.
First of all, the redundancy of the killer whale name- I couldn’t find a single instance of one attacking a human in the wild. Not such killers.
Secondly, the amazing evidence showing the inappropriate nature of Seaworld’s attempts at training and maintaining captive whales in small enclosures not resulting in its closure.
Thirdly, the second guy Tillikum was found naked floating on the whale’s back during morning rounds or something. Insert a ‘blowhole’ joke here.
Fourthly, a whale being named after a cheese, albeit with poor spelling, drowning someone because her pony tail resembled a chew toy? Perhaps screwing around with an 11,000 lb intelligent predator isn’t a great idea, life passion or not…..
There’s an awesome video of a pod of killer whales washing a seal off of a floating chunk of ice on YouTube. Very smart little bastards.