SeaWorld Killer Whale Controversy Continues as Amusement Park Insists Whale, Trainer Interaction is Safe
SeaWorld is arguing against a ban prohibiting them from having their trainers interact with the marine mammals in the wake of the death of a trainer.
Attorneys for SeaWorld are claiming that the United States Labor Department overreached in their decision to bar "close contact" between orcas and their trainers in response to the death of veteran SeaWorld Orlando trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010.
Brancheau died after Tilikum, a 12,000 pound orca, pulled Brancheau from her platform and dragged her underwater until she drowned.
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The Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated Brancheau's death and cited SeaWorld for "willfully" violating federal safety laws that require a workplace to be free from "recognized hazards."
SeaWorld argues that human contact with animals is educational, integral to the care of the whales and answers "an elemental human desire to know, understand and interact with the natural world."
The law as it is currently written seeks workplaces to minimize risk and not to totally eliminate risk.
"On rare occasions, killer whales can be dangerous," Sea World wrote. "Sea World has taken extraordinary measures to control that risk."
There has been widespread public attention to this case and there was even a documentary created to highlight the dangers posed between humans and orcas in captivity.
The documentary, Blackfish, is directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and puts forth the claim that keeping whales in captivity causes them to behave in more extreme ways.
"I think SeaWorld is just looking to sow a seed of doubt because they have to. There were so many things I didn't include because they took us away from Tilikum, but they were very disturbing and could have easily loaded the film and turned it into a piece of activism - which was never my intent," Cowperthwaite said in a statement after a wave of criticism over the film.
