Killer whale Tilly saved

26h February 2010
By Gemma Wheatley

KILLER whale Tilly who attacked and drowned his trainer will not be put down – and may even perform again.

SeaWorld in Florida said last night that six-tonne Tilly is to be spared.

He will remain at the marine fun park, where experts will care for him.

There was an outcry after the giant mammal grabbed his trainer Dawn Brancheau’s ponytail and dragged her to her death in front of a horrified crowd.

Tourists at the park in Orlando, Florida, watched helplessly as the beast “thrashed her around” in the water like a doll.

Tilly, blamed for killing two other people, then swam under water with Dawn, 40, and refused to let her surface.

She died from “multiple trauma injuries” and drowning, an interim post mortem found.

There were angry calls for the “rogue” whale to be executed as a danger to humans.

He also drowned another trainer in 1991, and there was a bizarre incident in 1999 when the body of a naked drowned man was found on the whale’s back.

But animal rights activists demanded the whale should be freed into the ocean.

David Phillips, of the International Marine Mammal Project for the Earth Island Institute, said: “The vast majority
of orca whales in captivity would be better off if they were returned to the wild.

“Orcas are unbelievably ill-suited to life in theme parks and can be successfully released into the wild.”

David, who led the effort to rescue and release killer whale Keiko, made famous by the 1993 movie Free Willy, added: “Orcas deserve a better fate than living in cramped pools. This isn’t the first time stressed-out orca whales have injured or killed people and it won’t be the last.”

But SeaWorld have decided to keep Tilly.

Chuck Tompkins, Corporate Curator of Zoological Operations at SeaWorld Parks, said: “Tilly will not be killed.”

He added that bosses would be looking at safety procedures while keeping the whale in the safest possible environment.

Tilly will mingle with other whales at the park, some of which it fathered.

Chuck added: “We’re going to physically and mentally take care of him. It’s too early to say that he won’t perform again.”

Yesterday tourists released grim pictures of the last moments of Dawn, who had worked at the theme park for 17 years.

Chuck said: “He grabbed her hair and pulled her under.”

See video at: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/123925/Death-not-whale-s-fault-say-animal-rights-group/