Sea World Tragedy: David Loftus

It seems to me not only poor policy with regard to employee safety to keep Tilikum active in SeaWorld performances, but bad public relations. If the 12,300-pound Orca could be farmed out to a zoo, and no longer used in shows with humans, that would seem to me to be the ideal solution, but I’m afraid SeaWorld probably has too much invested in the creature. (Note that SeaWorld is owned by Busch Entertainment Corp., a wing of the Anheuser-Busch Corporation, which bought the park for $2.7 billion last year.)

I have to think that management polled the trainers on how they felt about continuing to work with Tilikum, so the latter must have said they were comfortable with moving forward (although I’d be curious to see how many of them find jobs elsewhere in the coming months). I’d hate to think the management decided to keep Tilikum on show in the hope that more teens and twenty-somethings will come to the shows, on the off chance that something truly gnarly will happen again. One of the ironic touches of this story is that at Brancheau’s funeral on Monday, a family member said the trainer had been growing the ponytail by which Tilikum pulled her into the pool for the express purpose of donating her hair to “Locks of Love,” the organization that provides hairpieces to children who have suffered long-term medical hair loss.

The story may not be over just yet. It was reported Monday that OSHA, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, was investigating SeaWorld for potential violation of workplace standards, and that the U.S. Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service was inspecting the theme park for violations of the U.S. Animal Welfare Act.