Before the accident...
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010, had been a pretty normal day all through the morning and mid-afternoon. The Dine with Shamu shows had been outstanding, all of the whales were cooperating very well and the trainers were content with them and their behavior. But things would start to change for the worse later that day, and would cause controversy for years ahead, opening the eyes of millions...
A brief flashback...
Tilikum, or "Tilly", is arguably the most famous orca in captivity at SeaWorld Orlando. Years before he was purchased by SeaWorld, he was a happy orca who lived with his family out in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1983. Those 2 years were cut short when he was captured and bought by a marine amusement park called Sea Land. Tilly was at Sea Land with two other orcas who were females. In an orca's social hierarchy, the females are always the queen bees. Male orcas stay with their mothers their whole life. The females would bite him, shove him, exclude him out of activities, and ignored him overall. All of these actions ignited a small fire inside of Tilikum's head. In 1991, while doing tricks with his trainer and the two other orcas, Tilikum decided he had enough. His trainer, Keltie Byrne, was walking across platform in front of the orca pool where her shoe started to fall into the water where she ended up catching it. Before Keltie could get her foot out of the water, Tilikum came up behind her and dragged her under the water where after minutes of the attack she drowned. 8 years later, Tilly killed a man who had hid in the park after closing time. It was reported that the man had either slipped into Tilikum's pool or was dragged in and shortly died of hypothermia. Tilikum is an insanely sweet killer whale but when he's frustrated, he does what any orca would do, it isn't just him that's "crazy".
The attacked that changed SeaWorld forever...
![Picture](/uploads/5/3/6/1/53614855/1432864772.png?250)
The whales had been doing good but during and after a 12:30 pm show of Dine with Shamu, Tilikum started acting up. For an example, Tilly didn't respond to whistles that told him he completed his task perfectly, to come get a treat, and continue on with his routine. Dawn Brancheau, Tilly's trainer, seemed a little caught off guard but shook it off. After the performance, some visitors stayed after to get pictures of the whales, Dawn decided to get Tilly to do some poses for them and then she started to play with him on her own to keep him happy. As she got onto the platform, she leaned down to pet Tilikum and that's when he grabbed her arm and took her underwater. The visitors watching didn't understand what was happening but quickly realized Dawn was in trouble. The other staff tried to get Tilikum to come up to surface with Dawn's now lifeless body but nothing worked. It took minutes before Tilly decided to let go of her on the side of the stage, where she was then pronounced dead. Many people questioned why Tilly attacked her if he loved her, which lead to further investigations. A film maker, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, was one of those curious people who decided to make a documentary about orcas in captivity, which would explain Dawn's death towards the end of the movie.
The Blackfish Controversy
In 2013, the documentary about captive killer whales and Dawn's death was aired on CNN and later in theaters. The movie features a group of ex-SeaWorld trainers. All of them look back to their time at the parks and realize how naive they were and how they felt betrayed by SeaWorld because they were constantly lied to. The movie definitely brought SeaWorld some major negative lashback, which they had coming to them one day. The documentary went on to capture the attentions of millions and picked up some awards along the way. SeaWorld today is still struggling to pull through all of the controversy and the money loss. Dawn's death allowed loads of people to realize that animals aren't for our entertainment and that they should be left where we found them. Dawn in no way, caused her own death like SeaWorld claims she did. It could've happened to any one of the trainers, Dawn just happened to be the trainer that became the victim. There's no denying Dawn and Tilikum's love for each other, just look at them:
All we can do now is hope that this never happens to another trainer again and that SeaWorld finally sees that all of us aren't just yelling at them or trying to ruin their business for no reason, we're trying to get the point across, killer whales belong in the ocean and will live a longer and happier life there. Three too many people have died just for these animals to keep performing. These deaths that have occurred should be a good enough sign that SeaWorld should stop their breeding program and let all of the remaining killer whales live out their lives in captivity and soon shut down.
Dawn Brancheau
1969-2010
Rest In Peace
1969-2010
Rest In Peace