Man Vs. Wild

A killer whale killed his trainer at Orlando Sea World Wednesday afternoon. The 12,000 pound killer whale (Tallikum) jumped up and grabbed his female trainer (Dawn Brancheau) by the arm taking her underwater and drowning her. is the largest male at any Sea World. Both the whale and trainer where reported to be veterans at the theme park with the whale being at the theme park since 1992 and the trainer having 16 years of experience.



This event makes me think of another animal attacking his trainer. You all probably remember when Roy of Siegfried and Roy was attacked by a tiger in a show in 2003. He was lucky to be alive after being dragged from the stage by his neck. Both Roy and the tiger were experienced with these shows.



This brings me to the point "a wild animal will always be a wild animal." It is kind of like the story of the Indian boy and the snake. The Indian boy has to climb a snow covered mountain as his right of passage to manhood. As the boy is climbing the mountain he encounters a poisonous snake. The snake asks the Indian to pick him up and carry him to the bottom of the mountain where he can warm up. But the Indian says "you are a snake and you will bite me." The snake promises he will not bite the boy because if he did how would he get to the bottom of the mountain without freezing. After thinking about it the boy decided to take the snake to the bottom of the mountain. He put the snake in his shirt to help keep the snake warm on the trip down. When they got to the bottom of the mountain the boy took the snake from his shirt. As the boy sat the snake down it struck and bit him. The Indian boy, knowing he was going to die after the poisonous bite, asked the snake why it bit him. The snake said "you knew I was a snake when you picked me up."

This isn't the exact meaning of the fable but it still works. These trainers knew what the animals were capable of before choosing their line of work.