By Kaity Audick,
Staff Writer

The death of a veteran trainer at Orlando Florida’s Sea World has sparked controversy throughout many animal rights activist groups.

Trainer Dawn Brancheau was going through a regular show with the over 12,000 lb whale, when suddenly the Orca grabbed her from a platform. Dawn was thrashed around in its mouth before the whale dived down to the bottom on the tank where he remained until his trainer tragically drowned.

Several major animal rights groups are now campaigning to keep marine mammals from being used in shows in theme parks. Many of them are fighting to not have the large mammals in the parks at all. The same Orca that killed Brancheau was also responsible for a humans death in 1991, and again in 1999; both situations were deemed accidents.

“It is a wild animal, used to running free in an entire ocean, but is now confined to a very small space,”

stated Joyce Tischler, founder of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. No matter how much training a marine mammal has, it can still be triggered in certain scenarios to revert back to its instincts.

“The vast majority of the orca whales in captivity would be far better off to be returned to the wild. Orcas are unbelievably ill-suited to life in theme parks and can be successfully returned to the wild. We know, because we have done it,”

says David Phillips, director of the International Marine Mammal Project for the Earth Island Institute. Phillips went on to explain how civilians aren’t aware how much room the Orca’s really need.

Killer Whales in the wild usually spend their lifetime swimming hundreds of thousands of miles; keeping them contained to a large sized tank in cruel.

Phillips finished by reminding the public,

“this isn’t the first time that stressed-out Orca whales have injured or killed people, and unfortunately, it is not likely to be the last.”