Death of SeaWorld Trainer, Florida

As reported yesterday, a veteran SeaWorld trainer was attacked and killed by a whale shortly before the beginning of the popular orca show in Orlando, FL. The show arena was immediately evacuated and all further shows cancelled. Jim Atchison, President and CEO of SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, stated that investigations have been initiated and that nothing was more important to the park than the safety of its employees, guests and the animals. According to eye witnesses, the animals had already been very uneasy earlier that day in a previous show and some of them had disobeyed so that performances had been disturbed a little bit before. The persons in charge will now also have to answer the question why the following show was not cancelled directly after there had been several problems before. They’ll have to answer this question also remembering the recent fatal whale accident in December 2009 in Tenerife. (eap)