By Angela Beswick
Animal Rights group PETA has called for manslaughter charges to be laid against SeaWorld, saying the park must be held accountable when their greed causes loss of life.
The call comes after veteran whale trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, was killed by an orca at SeaWorld in Orlando.
In a 12-page letter to Florida State Attorney Lawson Lamar, PETA's General Counsel Jeffrey Kerr urges the consideration of manslaughter charges against the park and its senior executives in connection with Ms Brancheau's death.
Ms Brancheau was petting Tilikum, the park's largest male orca, in knee-deep water when he grabbed her by her pony tail and dragged her underwater. She was thrashed around and drowned before park officials could rescue her.
Mr Kerr alleges SeaWorld was "culpably negligent" by continuing to encourage and allow trainers to interact closely with the animals, despite a long list of previous attacks and a government warning three years ago.
Tilikum has been linked to two previous attacks; the death of a young trainer at Sealand of the Pacific in Columbia and that of a park visitor who snuck in after hours and was found naked and draped over the orca's back the next morning.
There have been six publicised attacks on trainers at SeaWorld parks since 2002, Mr Kerr says.
An investigation was launched by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health after an orca attacked its trainer in 2006. The department concluded it was "only a matter of time" before someone was killed.
Mr Kerr says the agency withdrew its findings under direct pressure from the park.
Statements obtained by PETA allege a number of other attacks have gone unreported to the media. An investigation more than 20 years ago revealed 14 dangerous accidents within a span of just four months.
"SeaWorld has shown reckless disregard for the live of its trainers by paying them to be in close contact with massive, powerful, wild animal who can kill them in a flash," PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement today.
"Corporations must be held accountable when their greed causes suffering and loss of life."
There is a precedent for bringing manslaughter charges in cases involving animal attacks, Mr Kerr says.
He uses the example of a Florida man convicted of manslaughter after six of his pit bulls, whose aggressiveness was evident based on prior attacks, mauled an elderly neighbour to death.
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