[30 Nov 2006 Thursday]
"Orca attack"? Bullshit.
Current mood: angry
So I saw an article that instantly piqued my interest today on Yahoo, about an orca who "attacked" her trainer last night at the Sea World in San Diego. According to the story, when they went to the bottom of the tank so she could launch out of the water, allowing her trainer to dive off her nose, Kasatka, the orca, grabbed onto his foot with her mouth and held the man under the water for less than a minute. After they surfaced, he tried to calm her, and she did the same thing, once again letting him back up after less than a minute underwater.
What gets me is how in the news clips and the story, they described this "attack" as some kind of horrible, vicious strike against Kasatka's trainer. The trainer went away from the "attack" with a broken foot and a ripped wetsuit. This is like the time a trainer was in the water with an orca at Sea World a few years ago--if you've watched Real TV, I'm sure you saw the clip of a woman in a bikini, getting dragged around THE SURFACE of the orca tank, screaming, of course, because her leg was in the orca's mouth, but she went away from this "attack" with no more than a few small cuts in her flesh. What people fail to realize whenever this happens is that if the orca *really* wanted to attack their trainer, we'd be seeing something like this or this. If an orca *really* wanted to attack their trainer and cause them harm, the human who they decided to attack would not be leaving the tank. "Attacking", for these creatures, whether they were born in captivity or not, is not "I'll bite this human's leg gently and drag him down for a little while." "Attacking" is not "I'll bite his girl's leg gently and swim around with her on the surface of the water, 'cause I know humans can't breathe underwater." "Attacking" is "hunting". "Attacking" is building up speed and charging at a seal colony on the beach. "Attacking" is getting a group of four to five orcas together to wash a seal off an ice floe. "Attacking" is when one orca slams their fluke into a ringed school of herring to stun them so the others can eat. And make no mistake--these animals are *smart*. Orcas, while we call them whales, are truly the largest breed of dolphin in the ocean, and we all know how smart dolphins are. When I say "I know humans can't breathe underwater" from the orca's point of view, I'm not pulling that out of my nether-reigions. They *know*. What these animals are doing to their trainers is playing. If they wanted to cause harm to their trainers, they'd be causing harm, not releasing their human when they were through with their fun.
I get so sick of seeing this stuff--news stories from supposedly informed individiuals, describing such scenes as "attacks". It may seem like an attack, as the animal is about two and a half times the size of an average man and weighs several tons, but think about it this way--if a man two and a half times your size (so, round about 15-20 feet in height), weighing over 5,000 pounds, gave you a playful slug on the arm or a pat on the back, would it not hurt you more than anything else? You'd probably end up bruised, and possibly with a fracture or broken bones, but you would know that said man had not intended to harm you in such a way--he was just playing, after all. He'd find some way to apologize to you, and would avoid doing it as much as he could again--at least, until the next time he just wanted to pal around with you and forgot his own strength. Aside from this theoretical being being human, how is this situation any different from these "attacks" made on the orca trainers?
I'm just sick of seeing these videos and situations get presented as "attacks". If the orca really wanted to attack and cause harm to those humans, then the trainer last night would not have suffered a mere broken foot, and the girl years ago would have lost her leg, and possibly broken her neck. These humans are getting in the water with PREDATORS that are MUCH larger, and possibly MUCH more intelligent than they are. The trainers understand the risks they are taking. I only wish that the rest of the world could realize that as well.
~Chii-chan, the Orca-Lover
"Orca attack"? Bullshit.
Current mood: angry
So I saw an article that instantly piqued my interest today on Yahoo, about an orca who "attacked" her trainer last night at the Sea World in San Diego. According to the story, when they went to the bottom of the tank so she could launch out of the water, allowing her trainer to dive off her nose, Kasatka, the orca, grabbed onto his foot with her mouth and held the man under the water for less than a minute. After they surfaced, he tried to calm her, and she did the same thing, once again letting him back up after less than a minute underwater.
What gets me is how in the news clips and the story, they described this "attack" as some kind of horrible, vicious strike against Kasatka's trainer. The trainer went away from the "attack" with a broken foot and a ripped wetsuit. This is like the time a trainer was in the water with an orca at Sea World a few years ago--if you've watched Real TV, I'm sure you saw the clip of a woman in a bikini, getting dragged around THE SURFACE of the orca tank, screaming, of course, because her leg was in the orca's mouth, but she went away from this "attack" with no more than a few small cuts in her flesh. What people fail to realize whenever this happens is that if the orca *really* wanted to attack their trainer, we'd be seeing something like this or this. If an orca *really* wanted to attack their trainer and cause them harm, the human who they decided to attack would not be leaving the tank. "Attacking", for these creatures, whether they were born in captivity or not, is not "I'll bite this human's leg gently and drag him down for a little while." "Attacking" is not "I'll bite his girl's leg gently and swim around with her on the surface of the water, 'cause I know humans can't breathe underwater." "Attacking" is "hunting". "Attacking" is building up speed and charging at a seal colony on the beach. "Attacking" is getting a group of four to five orcas together to wash a seal off an ice floe. "Attacking" is when one orca slams their fluke into a ringed school of herring to stun them so the others can eat. And make no mistake--these animals are *smart*. Orcas, while we call them whales, are truly the largest breed of dolphin in the ocean, and we all know how smart dolphins are. When I say "I know humans can't breathe underwater" from the orca's point of view, I'm not pulling that out of my nether-reigions. They *know*. What these animals are doing to their trainers is playing. If they wanted to cause harm to their trainers, they'd be causing harm, not releasing their human when they were through with their fun.
I get so sick of seeing this stuff--news stories from supposedly informed individiuals, describing such scenes as "attacks". It may seem like an attack, as the animal is about two and a half times the size of an average man and weighs several tons, but think about it this way--if a man two and a half times your size (so, round about 15-20 feet in height), weighing over 5,000 pounds, gave you a playful slug on the arm or a pat on the back, would it not hurt you more than anything else? You'd probably end up bruised, and possibly with a fracture or broken bones, but you would know that said man had not intended to harm you in such a way--he was just playing, after all. He'd find some way to apologize to you, and would avoid doing it as much as he could again--at least, until the next time he just wanted to pal around with you and forgot his own strength. Aside from this theoretical being being human, how is this situation any different from these "attacks" made on the orca trainers?
I'm just sick of seeing these videos and situations get presented as "attacks". If the orca really wanted to attack and cause harm to those humans, then the trainer last night would not have suffered a mere broken foot, and the girl years ago would have lost her leg, and possibly broken her neck. These humans are getting in the water with PREDATORS that are MUCH larger, and possibly MUCH more intelligent than they are. The trainers understand the risks they are taking. I only wish that the rest of the world could realize that as well.
~Chii-chan, the Orca-Lover
