1:23pm UK, Friday February 26, 2010

Emma Rowley, Sky News Online

A killer whale that drowned its trainer in front of an audience at a show will not be put down or released into the wild, its owner SeaWorld says.

Dawn Brancheau, pictured with an orca, had years of experience as an animal trainer

The aquatic park operator says it will keep Tilikum despite calls that the male orca should be set free or destroyed because it is a danger to humans.

Dawn Brancheau, 40, died when the five-tonne whale seized her ponytail, dragged her into its pool and thrashed her to death in front of horrified spectators at Wednesday’s show in SeaWorld Orlando, Florida.

Chuck Tompkins, chief of animal training at the SeaWorld parks, has defended the use of an animal that had already been involved in two other human deaths – that of a trainer in Canada in 1991 and a man who sneaked overnight into its tank in 1999.

“We didn’t ignore those incidents,” he said.

“We work with him very, very carefully. We did not get in the water with this animal like we do with other killer whales because we recognised his potential.

“We’re going to make any changes we have to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Killer whale Tilikum performs in a SeaWorld show in September 2009

SeaWorld said it will suspend killer whale shows at its parks in Orlando, San Antonio and San Diego while it reviews how the animals and their handlers work together.

But the company wrote in a blog post about Tilikum that it has “every intention of continuing to interact with this animal, though the procedures for working with him will change”.

Witnesses to the fatal attack said the whale played with Brancheau like a toy.

“He kept pushing her and poking her with his nose,” said Paula Gillespie of Delaware, who saw the attack from an underwater viewpoint.

“It looked like she was just totally caught off guard and looked like she was struggling.

“I just felt horrible because she’s someone’s daughter, mother. I couldn’t stop crying.”

The tragedy has renewed debate as to to whether the highly intelligent marine animals – capable of swimming a hundred miles in a day in the wild – are suitable for captivity.

The UK-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) believes not.

A spokesman said confinement “places these animals under considerable stress, shortens their life expectancy, and makes them liable to the type of aggressive behaviour towards humans (and other orcas) never seen in the wild”.

He added: “WDCS believes Tilikum should be offered the chance of a better life in his native waters, hopefully one day returned to the wild.

“If he cannot demonstrate the ability to fend for himself in the wild, he could be retired to a sea pen in his native waters where he doesn’t have to perform for the public and where he can live out the remainder of his life in a more natural environment, perhaps even joined by other captive orcas undergoing such rehabilitation.”

Russ Rector, a former dolphin trainer, is adamant that the whale poses a threat if it continues to work with humans.

“They are going to keep Tilikum and he is going to kill someone else,” said Mr Rector.

“If this was a big cat or a bear, it would have been put down after its first kill.”

Meanwhile Brancheau’s relatives have paid tribute to her as an “amazing trainer”, adding: “For her husband, family and friends, Dawn was so much more.

“She was a compassionate and loving person who lived life to the fullest. She touched so many lives.”