Killer whale to be spared as ponytail blamed for trainer death

Witnesses described seeing the 30-year-old, 12,300-pound bull orca, named Tilikum, grabbing veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau's long hair in its mouth before dragging her underwater at SeaWorld Orlando in Florida. Chuck Tompkins, head of animal training at all SeaWorld parks, said: "Dawn had just finished up a very good session with this animal. She was interacting with him, petting him on the nose. "Dawn had very long hair in a ponytail. That ponytail had swung in front of him. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her underwater and held her underwater." Witnesses at an earlier show said that the whale had been behaving like an unruly child but Mr Tompkins dismissed the reports and said he was a "good animal". SeaWorld has temporarily closed its whale attractions but there were reportedly no plans to remove the animal from the show. Tilikum was one of three orcas blamed for the drowning of a previous trainer in Canada in 1991. Eight years later a late night park intruder was found dead in his pool. Brancheau's older sister, Diane Gross, said the trainer, who was married with no children, would not want anything to happen to the whale and the family regarded her death as a tragic accident. "Dawn loved the whales like her children, she loved all of them," her sister said. "They all had personalities, good days and bad days."