On the afternoon of February 24th, 2010 a horrified crowd of people watched Dawn Brancheau die. Cause of death was determined to be drowning and traumatic injury, hardly a surprise considering it took emergency responders nearly 40 minutes to rescue Ms. Brancheau. The autopsy report reveals extensive injuries including lacerations, abrasions, damage to her spine and cranium, and the removal of part of her scalp and left arm. Her assailant has a record of violence and was involved in two similar attacks. Though incarcerated, Ms. Brancheau’s attacker is not in any federal penitentiary: no prison in the nation is equipped to hold her killer. Ms. Brancheau was killed by Tilikum, a 12,000 pound wild-caught killer whale that has been held at SeaWorld for the majority of his life.

                 This is not the first time Tilikum was involved in a death. In 1991 Tilikum and two other whales killed part-time trainer Keltie Byrne. In 1999 a dead body of Daniel Dukes was found in Tilikum’s enclosure. Even after these tragedies SeaWorld continued to use Tililkum in their performances, jeopardizing the lives of their trainers. For all their claims of scientific research and promoting a more holistic understanding of these magnificent creatures, SeaWorld seems to have missed the writing on the wall.  Yes, there is an assumed risk in working with any animal. Yes, SeaWorld trainers are well aware of this risk and knowingly enter in to a profession where they interact with these animals. But does this understood risk excuse SeaWorld’s actions? When SeaWorld asks their employees to interact with an animal that has behaved violently in the past they recklessly endanger human life.  While the ethical arguments opposing captive animals may not affect some, negligence on the part of an employer is something that most people understand to be unacceptable. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) agrees. In an investigation following Ms. Brancheau’s passing, OSHA found that show performances at SeaWorld could continue successfully without contact between the trainers and the killer whales. A subsequent court ruling validated this finding and ordered SeaWorld to stop direct interaction between trainers and killer whales during performances. This does not apply to interactions outside of the performances. 

                These heightened safety measures are certainly an improvement, but do not completely solve this problem. The trainers are only half of the equation. The other half happens to be a colossal animal with an extraordinary brain capacity.  What caused Tilikum to attack his trainers? Maybe he was just trying to play with Ms. Brancheau, or had become bored with his life in a concrete pool; maybe the toll of living in captivity slowly drove him insane. There is no answer for this. Killer whales are not domesticated animals. These creatures are not minnows or guppies breed by the hundreds in aquariums; they are sentient and intelligent beings. This intelligence means that they have a huge potential for learning and can be trained to do many different things.  They are not docile creatures who respond predictably and reliably, but rather clever animals that choose to produce certain behaviors when asked.  The emphasis is on choice: Tilikum chose to kill Dawn Brancheau just as he chose to perform earlier that day. Even if killer whales could be completely trained to behave precisely as their trainers desired, what makes anyone think they have the privilege to do so? We as humans have no right to behave this way, to impose our will on creatures that do nothing to provoke it. Yet there are entire industries built upon this principle of animal exploitation, which have become increasingly profitable in the past few decades. 

Obviously OSHA cannot rule on behalf of the whales. It is up to us, the people who love and respect these creatures to act for them. SeaWorld is a huge corporation that makes a living exploiting these animals.  In an ideal world, people would learn to appreciate killer whales (and all wild animals) in their natural environments. Until that day comes, it is our duty to make sure that these animals have the highest quality of life that they can in captivity. Tilikum does not have that. His violence earned him isolation, and he spends his days alone in his enclosure. He was recently reintroduced to performances at SeaWorld and now has the privilege of swimming circles in concrete pools all so that small children can giggle and point at the behemoth. Three times now Tilikum has shown us that he is unhappy in captivity, so why do they keep him there? If SeaWorld cares for these animals as much as they claim, they will release Tilikum into a sea pen so that he can spend the rest of his life listening to the sounds of the ocean and not the screams of his trainers.