SeaWorld’s rules for dealing with killer whales were either changed or broken by trainer Dawn Brancheau when a 22-foot-long orca dragged her to her death in front of horrified onlookers, her former mentor said yesterday.
Brancheau, 40, never should have lain down in the water close to Tilikum, the biggest orca in captivity, said Thad Lacinak, a former head trainer at the Orlando, Fla., theme park
That “is a very vulnerable position to be in with an animal like Tilikum,” he said.
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Tilikum, who was not trained to be in the water with people, saw Brancheau’s drifting ponytail as a “novelty item” to be played with, Lacinak said.
“He’s like, ‘Hey, look, you’re in the water. I’m going to play with you,’ ” Lacinak said.
The whale “just opened his mouth, sucked it in and pulled her in the water” to her death.
The medical examiner says she likely died of traumatic injuries and drowning.
Lacinak told “Good Morning America” that Brancheau, a veteran trainer, may have just blundered when she lay down on the shallow underwater shelf just off the whale tank.
“Dawn, if she was standing here with me, would tell you that it was her mistake that it happened,” he said.
He suggested that Brancheau may have temporarily forgotten how dangerous the whales are.
“Sometimes, we get too comfortable working with these animals,” he said. “Sometimes, we forget what they are.”
Lacinak’s comments came as SeaWorld, which also has parks in San Antonio and San Diego, announced that its “Shamu Believe” show would resume today at all three of its locations — and that Tilikum would not be euthanized.
Trainers won’t get in the water with the killer whales for now, until officials finish reviewing what happened to Brancheau, SeaWorld President Jim Atchison said.
He said Tilikum would remain an “active, contributing member of the team” at SeaWorld.
Lacinak remembered Brancheau as “an excellent trainer, one of the best I’ve seen in my life.”
He said there were special protocols for handling Tilikum because of the animal’s size and involvement in two other deaths.
Tilikum was one of three orcas blamed for killing a trainer in 1991 at a theme park near Victoria, British Columbia.
In 1999, the body of a naked man was found draped over Tilikum at SeaWorld. Officials said the man, who had stayed in the park after closing, apparently fell into the whale tank and died of hypothermia, but was also bitten by Tilikum.
Atchison said the show would “make improvements and changes,” but didn’t say whether safety protocols had been violated in Wednesday’s tragedy.
He said the 12,000-pound Tilikum is the only killer whale in SeaWorld’s parks that has special handling rules.
Atchison also said he wasn’t sure how long it would be before trainers would be allowed back in the water with the whales.
Brancheau’s family had expressed concern that Tilikum would be put to death.
Her sister, Diane Gross, said the trainer treated the orcas as if they were her children, and “would not want anything done to that whale.”
SeaWorld said it had never euthanized an animal “for being aggressive.”