SeaWorld employee says killer whale risk “acceptable”

Getting in the water with an animal that weighs more than a truck, can swim 30 MPH and is capable of effortlessly snapping a person in half is a bit much of a risk; if you ask me. At the end of the day these are wild animals whose instincts and natural behavior is not to perform tricks in a pool. TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Reuters

ReutersBy Barbara Liston | Reuters

SANFORD, Fla (Reuters) – A SeaWorld trainer who escaped being drowned by a killer whale during a public performance in California in 2006 testified on Tuesday that he still works with the whales and considers the risk “acceptable.”

“I could get killed in a car accident today, but I still get in a car,” said Ken Peters, now an assistant animal curator at the SeaWorld San Diego park.

Peters’ testimony came as a federal hearing resumed, after a nearly two-month hiatus, over SeaWorld’s challenge of safety charges stemming from the 2010 drowning death of trainer Dawn Brancheau by a different killer whale at SeaWorld Orlando.

The most serious charge filed by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is classified as a “willful violation,” meaning the theme park company showed indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.

Brancheau, 40, was grabbed off a shallow ledge by Tilikum, a 12,000-pound bull orca, who thrashed around violently, drowning Brancheau and breaking and dislocating her bones.

SeaWorld faces a potential $75,000 fine, and SeaWorld lawyer Carla Gunnin said in September that the park might be forced to end close physical interaction between the whales and trainers. SeaWorld has kept trainers out of the killer whale pools since Brancheau’s death.

Peters, who was called as a witness for OSHA on Tuesday, generally defended SeaWorld’s safety protocols for employees working with killer whales.

But government attorney John Black told Administrative Judge Ken Welsch that Peters’ experiences with killer whales supported the government’s argument that the animals are a recognized hazard in the industry.

KILLER WHALE GRABBED PETERS’ FOOT

In September, Black showed Welsch a SeaWorld video of the San Diego incident in which killer whale Kasatka, a 5,000-pound dominant female, grabbed Peters’ foot and twice dove to the pool floor, holding Peters underwater.

SeaWorld officials told reporters at the time that Peters, then 39, was underwater less than one minute each time. Both times when Kasatka surfaced, Peters was seen in the video patting the whale. Kasatka eventually let go of his foot and swam away, allowing Peters to escape.

While underwater, Peters testified, he heard Kasatka’s calf vocalizing in a backstage pool and assumed that agitated her.

“Even when I was down at the bottom of the pool, I thought she’d let me go,” Peters said.

Peters also described a 1999 incident in which Kasatka tried to grab his feet and hand. Peters said he and other trainers saw no sign that Kasatka was agitated before he entered the water.

SeaWorld, in hindsight, ruled that entering the water was an “error in judgment” because Kasatka’s then-calf had just left his trainer and gone to another pool, Peters said. After the 1999 incident, SeaWorld imposed a new rule that trainers should not go into the water “when upsetting social behavior is present,” according to documents read in court.

After the 2006 incident, SeaWorld installed more cameras so trainers could better monitor the whales’ socialization in other pools and banned further wet work with Kasatka, Peters said.

SeaWorld was expected to begin its defense after the government presents its final witnesses.

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Johnston)

About The Great One

Am interested in science and philosophy as well as sports; cycling and tennis. Enjoy reading, writing, playing chess, collecting Spyderco knives and fountain pens.
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