Tilikum the killer whale, I think, has put his employers in an awkward position.  I mean, a killer whale is not an employee that you can fire, or take away his quarterly bonus.  And there is, of course, the awkward press conference where you explain, as if it’s the most normal thing in the world, that “in July 1999, security guards found a naked dead man draped across the orca’s back one morning.”  Sure, the guy sneaked past SeaWorld security and apparently died of hypothermia, but it’s awkward when one of your employees was found wearing a naked dead man as a hat.

Megan McArdle says that SeaWorld management is doing all the wrong things in regards to Tilikum’s killing of Dawn Brancheau, but that analysis implies that there’s a right way to handle it.  You could destroy the animal, but that would be a public relations nightmare.  You can’t “take him to the woods and set him free…” as that would be effectively the same as destroying the whale (to the same extent that taking your average 25 year old video game designer into the Alaskan wilderness and “setting him free” would be a death sentence) with the added “benefit” of potentially releasing viral, bacterial, or other biological contaminants among wild orcas.  I capture and keep in aquariums wild sunfish from lakes and rivers near my home, and though I wouldn’t conflate a 1 ounce sunfish with a 6 ton orca, releasing a once captive animal into the wild is a serious potential source of contamination for the wild population.

It’s also worth noting that the trainers have 1.25% the body weight of the whales they work with every day.  It’s a dangerous job.  The safety record of the parks, in general, is pretty good considering that the staff is working in close quarters with predatory animals which are probably as intelligent as a primates but share a similar size relationship to humans that humans have to, say, rabbits.  It’s worth noting that dolphins and orcas regularly engage in what can only be described as, well, assholish behavior.  Obviously, they do.  And orcas in their natural environment feed on animals that have the same basic proportions as humans.  We’re kind of like a colony of snowshoe hares convincing a lynx to wear a clown suit and make balloon animals.  Yet SeaWorld safety stats don’t make us wonder if the whales are holding handwritten signs up next to their mouths that say “Free Hookers and Blow!” while comically sharpening steak knives.

To the extent that the captive orcas and dolphins further scientific knowledge and, through their performances, encourage conservation among the general public, SeaWorld is probably contributing to the greater good.  Hopefully, Ms. Brancheneau’s death will lead SeaWorld to work to provide better safety procedures, but I don’t think that it should be used as an excuse to shut SeaWorld down.

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