A female SeaWorld employee got jammed to death by Tillikum the Orca in Orlando today. Initial reports say that the woman was grabbed during a performance while she was explaining what "tricks" the Whales were about to perform.

The whale "took off really fast in the tank, and then he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing around, and one of her shoes flew off."

[LA Times]

While the show was canceled and Shamu Stadium evacuated, the park remains open. Isn't that nice of them?

Tilly is quite the partier. In 1991 he was accused of drowning a trainer at Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia. Shortly after, Tilly was sold to SeaWorld for stud purposes. In 1999, he was found in his tank playing with a dead man who may have jumped in the tank in the middle of the night. Why should anyone be surprised when a 12,000 pound male Orca confined to a cage its entire life gets pissy once in a while? It is nearly unheard of for an Orca to harass human beings in the wild, but they often take out their anger on people while in captivity. Does anyone need a PhD in animal behavior to figure out why? These are one of the most intelligent species on earth and have a large range of habitat at their disposal...the problem is that there habitat does not include inland Orlando, Florida.

How smart are Orcas? Check it out (please excuse the Animal Planet sensationalism):

Orcas do not belong in captivity. Either do Dolphins or anything else smarter-than-your-average-American-voter/consumer.

--El Tiburon