Orca trainer’s family say her death was an accident
Dawn Brancheau, a whale trainer at SeaWorld Adventure Park, is shown while performing
The grieving family of a veteran trainer, Dawn Brancheau, who was killed by an orca at SeaWorld Orlando say they consider her death an accident.
Brancheau, 40, drowned when Tilikum, a 5,600-kilogram whale, dragged her into his tank and held her underwater. The brush of her ponytail against the nose of a killer whale appears to have been what sparked it. Within seconds the giant creature had grabbed her hair, pulled her under water and kept her there until she drowned.
Her sister, Diane Gross, said the family considered the death an accident, which they had yet to come to terms with.
She said Brancheau, who had 16 years experience working with marine animals, loved the orcas like they were her children. “She loved all of them,” Ms Gross said, according to the Associated Press.
“They all had personalities, good days and bad days.”
Brancheau always wanted to work with marine animals after a childhood trip to a SeaWorld centre, her sister said.
Tilikum was always considered a particularly dangerous animal by staff. A whale expert insists that because of killer whales’ high level of intelligence, the attack must have been ”pre-medidated and intentional”.
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