"Orange County Sheriff's Office investigators said today that SeaWorld Orlando trainer Dawn Brancheau died from "multiple traumatic injuries and drowning" after a killer whale pulled her underwater by her long pony tail near the theme park's Shamu Stadium. Investigators released a statement shortly after an official at SeaWorld Orlando said that the killer whale, Tilikum, is being evaluated and that the theme park will keep the animal....The orca that killed veteran trainer Brancheau has been linked to two previous deaths since 1991." - bob

"Chuck Tompkins, the corporate curator in charge of animal behavior for SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, said that he expects SeaWorld to be taking care of the orca for a long time. He added that he does not think the animal could survive in the wild. "I think it's unfair to do that to an animal," he said, adding that SeaWorld employees also continue to mourn Brancheau, their longtime coworker and friend. "This has been extremely difficult for us. . . . Every animal loved working with Dawn," said Tompkins." - bob

Really? "The only thing I can compare it to is when the astronauts went to the space station and that tragic thing happened coming back," Hanna said, referring to the 2003 disintegration of the Columbia space shuttle that killed seven astronauts. "Why did we do that? We did that to learn more about space and how that will help us." - Paul Buchheit

They do realize that the animals are called *killer* whales, right? - Gabe

The way they describe the orca as having been: "linked to two previous deaths since 1991" make it sound like the animal was hanging out with the wrong crowd or has been killing people, but in a way that makes it hard to discover who did it. - no name