Those whose jobs involve live poker, online poker, or poker tournaments in order to make their monthly mortgage payment may think they live on the edge. Professional poker players know that risk comes with the territory, and that an extended run of bad luck could leave them living under a bridge like a common troll. This is not unlike a lumberjack or a those maniacs on the crab boats who go to work fully aware that their day may end with those pesky questions about the afterlife being answered. Rarely does the type who defies death on a regular basis look at marine biology and say “Now that’s Hardcore!” Of course anyone who works with “Tilikum”, SeaWorld Orlando’s largest killer whale, may have other views on the topic.
Several years ago when Tilikum was just an adolescent whale, working its way through a leviathans version of teen angst, park workers found him wearing the body of a dead trespasser like a hat. This was not the whale’s first kill. In 1991 the Orca helped drown another one of his trainers. This week, during a show in Orlando, his current trainer was explaining to the audience exactly what sort of entertainment they could expect from the whale show. Unfortunately, nobody ran the script by Tilikum, who popped out of the water, grabbed the trainer between his jaws, and thrashed her about until the woman was dead. Nobody was entertained. With three notches in his fin already, only someone with a lemming’s sense of self preservation would get in the tank with this animal.
SeaWorld has released a statement regarding the incident. They have expressed regret, and while they have made it very clear that they will keep the whale, they have been rather evasive about whether or not Tilikum will appear any more Orca shows. What has been astounding is that nobody seemed to see this coming. Orcas are the only animal on the planet that makes a Great White Shark submissively urinate. You can’t just haul one out of the ocean, give it the sort of name that would be more appropriate for a Care Bear or a Smurf, and suddenly be surprised when it does something bad. What part about the words “Killer Whale” are they not getting? I am guessing it is the adjective bit of the word they are having a problem with.
In the future maybe should stop playing with the sort of whales that make meals out of bigger whales and start doing White Tiger shows instead. Well, maybe not.
