Author: LATimes

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or out on a beautiful cruise, you know that billionaire golfer Tiger Woods has had a tough few months. Not only did he have to face the music earlier this month by publicly apologizing via live television for his extramarital affair(s), but earlier today another one of his sponsors, Gatorade, decided to drop him because of the controversy.

There was some good news for the troubled golfer. Recently PETA proposed to erect a billboard with Tiger’s image on it with an all-caps headline reading "TOO MUCH SEX CAN BE A BAD THING." That was the hook. In smaller type was PETA’s real message "… for little tigers too. Help keep your cats (and dogs) out of trouble: Always spay or neuter!"

Apparently Tiger (or his people) were able to convince PETA to pick on someone else as its de facto sex spokesman. For not only did the animal rights activists decide not to use Woods’ image on their billboard (instead opting for disgraced South Carolina governor Mark Sanford), PETA has deleted its blog post that announced the plans for Woods to be on its billboard. 

Will any of this hoopla encourage people to spay or neuter their pets? Only time will tell.

— Tony Pierce

Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: Tiger Woods drops his putter and puts his hands on his head after missing a birdie putt in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in La Jolla on June 16, 2008. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

SeaWorld’s head of animal training, Chuck Tompkins, recently spoke on video about trainer Dawn Brancheau, who was killed Wednesday during an interaction with an orca named Tilikum.

Brancheau’s sister, Diane Gross, described her as someone who "loved the whales like her children," and Tompkins echoed those sentiments in his video statement. Brancheau was apparently interacting with Tilikum on a poolside platform Wednesday when he grabbed her hair and pulled her into the water. An autopsy found that she "most likely died from multiple traumatic injuries and drowning," according to a news release from the Orange County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office.

A former head trainer at SeaWorld, Thad Lacinak, told Florida news station WFTV that he believed an error on Brancheau’s part led to her death. During his time at the park, Lacinak said, "[the] protocol was not to be around Tilikum’s mouth while you’re laying down" on the water-covered platform called the slide-out.

Lying down "is a very vulnerable position to be in with an animal like Tilikum," Lacinak continued. "And apparently her ponytail drifted into the water, he just opened his mouth, sucked it in and pulled her in the water." But Lacinak was quick to describe Brancheau as an excellent trainer, despite the apparent mistake.

Brancheau had apparently been working since childhood toward her dream of training marine mammals. In a 2006 interview with the Orlando Sentinel, she recalled a trip to SeaWorld at age 9 as being pivotal in her decision to become a trainer. "I remember walking down the aisle (of Shamu Stadium) and telling my mom, ‘This is what I want to do,’ " she told the Sentinel.

A memorial fund has been established for Brancheau, with donations to be used "to support the children’s charities she was so passionate about," SeaWorld announced Friday.

Although SeaWorld’s president and chief executive, Jim Atchison, has said that "[all] of our standard operating procedures will come under review as part of the investigation" into Brancheau’s death, the Orlando park will resume its public orca shows this weekend.

In light of Wednesday’s tragedy, SeaWorld has suspended the Twitter account it had maintained to give voice to its Shamu orca character. (Shamu is not the name of any of SeaWorld’s current orcas, but is rather a stage name used by any number of the orcas performing at SeaWorld. The original Shamu died more than 30 years ago.)

"At this difficult time, @Shamu will not be active on Twitter, as users who follow @Shamu have come to expect posts that are light-hearted and perhaps a bit quirky," a spokesperson wrote on SeaWorld’s blog. The company continues to post updates to its primary Twitter account, @SeaWorld_Parks.

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SeaWorld faces public relations challenge in wake of trainer’s orca death

— Lindsay Barnett

ORLANDO, Fla. — SeaWorld will restart its killer whale shows this weekend after Tilikum, the largest orca in captivity, dragged a trainer to her death in the water at the Orlando park.

SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment President Jim Atchison said Friday trainers won’t get in the water with the killer whales for now until officials finish reviewing what happened to veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40.

"We will make improvements and changes, and we will move forward," Atchison said at a news conference at the Florida park, one of three SeaWorld locations. The others are in San Antonio and San Diego.

The trainer was dragged into the water Wednesday by Tilikum. The medical examiner says she likely died of traumatic injuries and drowning.

Atchison says Tilikum will remain an "active, contributing member of the team" at SeaWorld.

Atchison says whale shows will resume Saturday. He says he’s not sure how long it will be before trainers are allowed to get back in the water with the animals.

Tilikum is the only killer whale in the SeaWorld chain for which the park has special handling rules, Atchison said. The 22-foot, 12,000-pound male was involved in two earlier deaths at SeaWorld and a park in Canada.

Atchison wouldn’t speak to specific protocols or whether any had been violated, saying it’s too soon to come to any conclusions.

"It’s far too early to get to that point," he said. He added, "We are evaluating every policy, every procedure we have."

The issue of protocols was raised by the former head of animal training at SeaWorld, Thad Lacinak, who said earlier Friday that the rules in place when he left the park in 2008 would not have allowed Brancheau to lie down on a submerged shelf next to the whale, where the animal was able to grab her ponytail.

"She laid completely down, which is a very vulnerable position to be in with an animal like Tilikum. And apparently her ponytail drifted into the water, he just opened his mouth, sucked it in and pulled her in the water," Lacinak, who left SeaWorld in 2008 to start a consultancy, told the Associated Press.

Lacinak said he’d been told how the attack happened by other trainers who were at the scene. Based on their description, he said the rules for handling Tilikum that were in place during his tenure had either been broken or changed.

Tilikum was one of three orcas blamed for killing a trainer in 1991 at a theme park near Victoria, Canada. In 1999, the body of a naked man was found draped over Tilikum at SeaWorld. Officials said the man had stayed in the park after closing, apparently fell into the whale tank and died of hypothermia, but was also bitten by Tilikum.

Lacinak said Brancheau’s ponytail was merely a "novelty item" to the whale, who was not trained to be in the water with people.

"It was a novel item in the water, and he grabbed hold of it, not necessarily in an aggressive way," he said.

Lacinak said the whale dragged the trainer into the water in more of a playful, investigative manner. Once the whale had her in the water, it likely became a game.

"It was more novelty, he’s like, ‘Hey look, you’re in the water, I’m going to play with you,’" Lacinak said.

— Associated Press

Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: SeaWorld President and Chief Executive Jim Atchison speaks in an underwater viewing area during a news conference on Friday. Credit: Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press

MIAMI — After decades of cultivating a corporate image around one of the ocean’s greatest predators, SeaWorld managers must reassure visitors that a killer whale’s fatal mauling of its trainer doesn’t mean the parks aren’t safe.

Veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, was killed Wednesday by the killer whale Tilikum in front of a horrified audience at the close of the lunchtime show. SeaWorld has halted Shamu shows at the Orlando theme park and at sister parks in San Antonio and San Diego while it reviews the death.

Marketing and public relations experts say what the company does in coming days will be key to preserving its image.

Glenn Bunting, managing director for the Los Angeles-based crisis management firm Sitrick and Co., said SeaWorld needs to respond promptly and proactively.

"They need to review every safety precaution," he said. "They need to explain how it happened, why it happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again to reassure the public."

The company stumbled during its first post-attack news conference. Orlando SeaWorld President Dan Brown did not immediately correct a sheriff’s department spokesman who said Brancheau accidentally fell into the water, and Brown himself said only that she "drowned in an incident with one of our killer whales."

SeaWorld acknowledged two hours later that Tilikum had grabbed Brancheau by her ponytail and yanked her into the water. The park then made its head animal trainer available to the media to explain and defend its methods of training and maintaining its whales.

Larry L. Smith, president of the Institute for Crisis Management, in Louisville, Ky., defended SeaWorld’s response.

"They’ve not overreacted. They’ve not gone into a stall. They’re not ducking the media," he said. And, he said, they had the advantage that the attack occurred the same day the head of Toyota testified before Congress about his own company’s public relations crisis.

Smith said the attack could actually drive up attendance of at least one demographic — teens and young adults.

"It’s not going to draw families necessarily or older people who would typically visit there, but there is an age group that gets excited about the risks and the potential for drama, and it may attract some of those folks," he said.

Peter Yesawich, chairman of Ypartnership, an Orlando marketing firm that specializes in travel and entertainment, said SeaWorld enjoys a reputation as a family-friendly and animal-friendly company, which should help it recover from the crisis. In Florida, its veterinarians have been known to respond to cases of injured marine animals in the wild.

Yesawich said SeaWorld also showed responsibility by shutting down its killer whale shows until it can assess what happened. And fatal accidents at other theme parks — such as last summer’s Disney World monorail crash that killed the ride’s operator — don’t stop the public from attending.

"It’s one of these tragic, unpredictable instances that I personally don’t think is going to do any long-term damage to the SeaWorld brand," he said.

Denise DeVore, 36, a photographer from Beacon, N.Y., visited the park with her 3-year-old daughter Wednesday and said she felt it was safe for the public. DeVore said she thinks SeaWorld plays an important role in educating people about marine life.

But will she return?

She echoed several other parents who were torn, though not because of the attack.

"The question is should we have whales in captivity? These are wild animals," DeVore said, adding, "but my daughter loves those dolphins."

— Associated Press

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Photo: Chuck Tompkins, right, corporate curator of zoological operations for SeaWorld, talks to the media on Thursday. Credit: Red Huber / McClatchy Tribune News Service

We love to imagine what these piglets thought when their sleep was interrupted by the sounds of Amy Winehouse’s "Rehab." (We suspect their internal monologues ran along the lines of, "Just five more minutes, Mom.")

We also love watching these little guys’ ears flap in unison as they snooze in a piglet pile. What could be cuter? Well … maybe a tiny rabbit licking its lips after a good meal. But the piglets are still pretty cute, you’ve got to admit.

— Lindsay Barnett

Don’t miss a single adorable animal: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Despite calls to free or destroy the animal, SeaWorld said Thursday it will keep the killer whale that drowned its trainer, but will suspend all orca shows while it decides whether to change the way handlers work with the animals.

Also, VIP visitors who occasionally were invited to pet the killer whales will no longer be allowed to do so.

"We’re going to make any changes we have to to make sure this doesn’t happen again," Chuck Tompkins, chief of animal training at SeaWorld parks, said a day after a 12,000-pound killer whale named Tilikum dragged a trainer into its pool and thrashed the woman to death as audience members watched in horror.

Talk-radio callers, bloggers and animal activists said Tilikum — who was involved in the deaths of two other people over the last two decades — should be released into the ocean or put to death like a dangerous dog.

Tompkins said that Tilikum would not survive in the wild because he has been captive for so long, and that destroying the animal is not an option either, because he is an important part of the breeding program at SeaWorld and a companion to the seven other killer whales there.

Dawn Brancheau, a 40-year-old veteran trainer who adored killer whales, was rubbing Tilikum from a poolside platform when the 22-foot creature grabbed the woman’s ponytail in its jaws and pulled her in. Witnesses said the whale played with Brancheau like a toy.

"He kept pushing her and poking her with his nose," said Paula Gillespie of Delaware, who saw the attack from an underwater observation point. "It looked like she was just totally caught off guard and looked like she was struggling."

She added: "I just felt horrible because she’s someone’s daughter, mother. I couldn’t stop crying."

The killer whale shows have been put on hold at SeaWorld’s three parks in Orlando, San Antonio and San Diego. Tompkins said they will not resume until trainers understand what happened to Brancheau. He also said trainers will review safety procedures and change them as needed.

He would not give details on what might be changed, but he said he does not expect visitors to the theme park to see much difference in the killer whale shows, in which trainers swim with the animals, ride on their backs and jump off of them.

There is virtually no contact between visitors and the orcas at SeaWorld shows, said Fred Jacobs, a spokesman for the SeaWorld parks. But in the past, VIP guests occasionally were allowed to come down to the edge of the pool and touch the whales. That will no longer be permitted, Jacobs said.

Because of Tilikum’s size and history of aggressive behavior, visitors were not allowed to get close to the killer whale, and trainers were not permitted to climb into the water with the animal. They were only allowed to work with him from a partially submerged deck.

Tompkins defended SeaWorld’s use of a killer whale that had already been blamed in the deaths of two other people.

"We didn’t ignore those incidents," Tompkins said. "We work with him very, very carefully. We did not get in the water with this animal like we do with other killer whales because we recognized his potential."

Brancheau’s older sister, Diane Gross, said the trainer would not have wanted anything done to the orca. "She loved the whales like her children. She loved all of them," said Gross, of Schererville, Ind. "They all had personalities, good days and bad days."

In a profile in the Orlando Sentinel in 2006, Brancheau acknowledged the dangers, saying: "You can’t put yourself in the water unless you trust them and they trust you."

One of SeaWorld’s most popular shows — about a child who wants to grow up to be a killer whale trainer — could have been inspired by Brancheau herself.

A trip to SeaWorld at age 9 instilled a desire in her to work with marine animals. She attended the University of South Carolina and majored in psychology, but got a job at a New Jersey park after graduation, working with dolphins and sea lions. She was hired at SeaWorld in Orlando in 1994.

Tilikum was one of three orcas blamed for killing a trainer in 1991 after the woman lost her balance and fell into a pool at a Sealand theme park near Victoria, British Columbia.

In 1999, the body of a naked man was found draped over Tilikum at SeaWorld in Orlando. Officials said the man had stayed in the park after closing and apparently fell into the whale tank. An autopsy found he died of hypothermia. Officials also said it appeared Tilikum bit the man.

A few months after the 1991 death in Canada, SeaWorld asked the National Marine Fisheries Service for permission to "import and temporarily house" Tilikum in Orlando, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.

In a 1992 letter, the federal agency said SeaWorld wanted to move Tilikum to Orlando "for the purpose of providing medical treatment and care that is otherwise unavailable in Canada at this time."

The letter did not mention the whale’s role in the deadly attack. But the agency criticized the theme parks, saying "prudent and precautionary steps necessary for the health and welfare of Tilikum were not taken by Sealand or SeaWorld."

Animals parks are inspected at least once a year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make sure the animals are being treated humanely and getting proper nutrition and veterinary care. Online records for the three SeaWorld parks going back to 2007 show only minor violations, such as paper feeding trays accidentally dropped into an exhibit.

None of the violations had anything to do with the park’s killer whales.

"For the most part, they run a top-notch facility, and they take very good care of their animals," USDA spokesman Dave Sacks said.

Howard Garrett, co-founder and director of the Washington-based nonprofit Orca Network, has studied killer whales for nearly 30 years and said the creatures are not considered dangerous to humans, even though they are highly efficient predators in the wild.

"In their natural habitat, there is no record of any harm to a human anywhere," Garrett said.

He said Tilikum was probably agitated before Wednesday’s attack, possibly from some kind of clash with the other killer whales.

Gary Wilson, a professor at Moorpark College’s exotic animal training program, said it can be difficult to detect when an animal is about to turn on its trainer.

"One of the challenges working with any animal is learning to read its body language and getting a feel for what’s going on in its mind," he said.

— Associated Press

Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Video: Tilikum as seen from an underwater viewing area at SeaWorld Orlando in 2007. Credit: Orcalover182 via YouTube

BANGKOK — Thailand has seized two tons of elephant tusks from Africa hidden in pallets labeled as mobile phone parts in the country’s largest ivory seizure.

Thai customs officials valued Wednesday night’s haul at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at 120 million baht ($3.6 million). It is a further sign that Thailand is emerging as a hub for the illicit trade.

Poaching of elephants in central and eastern Africa has intensified in recent years, with much of the illegal ivory exported to Asia.

Seree Thaijongrak, director of the investigation and suppression bureau for the Customs Department, said that acting on a tip, officials seized two pallets containing 239 tusks of African elephants.

The consignment, which originated in South Africa, was labeled as mobile phone parts destined for Laos — apparently to confuse customs officials because Laos has an agreement with neighboring Thailand not to check cargo in transit. 

A Thai national, however, attempted to pick up the cargo and was detained, Seree said. Customs officials suspect the tusks would have been crafted into trinkets and jewelry in Thailand.

"This is the biggest seizure we have ever had," Seree said. "This is a real accomplishment for Thailand. Normally, this would have gone right through but we got the tip-off."

Seree said smuggling of ivory from Africa is on the rise in Thailand as in much of Southeast Asia.

Ivory shipped to Thailand typically goes to carvers who fashion it into Buddhist statues, bangles and jewelry for sale to tourists or sale in other countries. Thailand is also a transit point for ivory forwarded to other markets like China.

Last month, Thailand arrested two Thai women accused of dealing in illegal African ivory, a day after an American and a Thai national were indicted in California on charges of smuggling ivory into the United States. Police believe the women supplied ivory to the Thai national, who prosecutors say sold several pieces of ivory on EBay, disguising shipments as gifts and toys.

The U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species banned all international ivory trade in 1989. Traders in Thailand have thrived in part because the 1989 ban did not address domestic trade. That loophole allows them to deceive authorities by claiming that their African ivory came from domestic sources — a tactic that is effective because it can be difficult without DNA testing to tell the difference between African and Asian ivory.

Authorities say 10 tons of African ivory were seized in Southeast Asia last year, including three seizures in Thailand.

— Associated Press

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Photo: Thai customs officials examine seized elephant tusks at Bangkok’s international airport. Credit: Thai Customs Dept. / AFP/Getty Images

At Israel’s Zoological Center Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan (also known as the Ramat Gan Safari), 3-month-old lion cubs made their public debut Sunday.

All three cubs are female, which comes as a big relief for zoo staff. For the last several years, only male cubs have been born at the zoo, so an influx of females means a better balance for its lion community.

The cubs, which haven’t been named yet, are the first triplet female lion cubs to be born at the zoo in its history. See more photos after the jump!

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— Lindsay Barnett

Top three photos: Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP / Getty Images

Fourth and fifth photos: David Silverman / Getty Images

PARIS — For a zoo, it’s a quiet and lonely place. Among the few remaining residents of Paris’ main animal park are the giraffes — whose long necks make travel inconvenient — and a hippo who was permitted to stay put after she threw a temper tantrum in a shipping crate.

Closed since 2008, and its animals mostly shipped abroad, the aging zoo in Paris’ Vincennes woods has been awaiting a badly needed renovation. On Wednesday, officials finally announced a $181-million overhaul through a public-private partnership, which they hope will create a zoo befitting one of the world’s most beautiful cities.

The animal park, officially called the Zoological Park of Paris, will reopen in 2014. In the meantime, "the giraffes will oversee the construction site," said Bertrand-Pierre Galey, who runs France’s National Museum of Natural History, which encompasses the zoo.

The zoo has not had major work done since it opened in 1934, and its crumbling displays — including faux cliffs and rocks made out of concrete — eventually became a safety hazard.

"The rocks were deteriorating, and it was getting dangerous for the personnel, the public and the animals," Genevieve Beraud-Bridenne, director of the museum’s department of botanic gardens and zoos, told the Associated Press.

The new design is sleek and aims to re-create animals’ natural ecosystems as closely as possible.

A glass-domed greenhouse will replicate an Amazonian rain forest. White rhinos and West African lions will roam on a savanna covered with dry shrub. Another zone will re-create the rocky terrain of Patagonia, with Humboldt penguins. Ten zones are planned in total.

The zoo will showcase many threatened species, such as several types of lemurs native to Madagascar, among the 1,000-plus animals on display. The priority is the animals’ health and happiness: There will be no elephants because there isn’t enough space for them.

An emphasis will be put on education and research, and a longer-term goal is to reintroduce some endangered species into the wild.

French Ecology Minister Chantal Jouanno said officials discussed at length whether zoos still have a role in the 21st century or whether their time has come and gone. But they decided that zoos are now scientific research centers and help explain issues like biodiversity to the general public.

"This zoo project is a strong denial of the notion that zoos are out of date," she said.

Once the museum reopens, tickets will cost an average price of $18.50. The overhaul is to be funded through a public-private partnership signed Wednesday.

The natural history museum will share the financial burden with a consortium called Chrysalis, specially set up for the project, that includes building group Bouygues Construction. Private investment in such projects was once a rarity in France, though it’s becoming more common.

Since the zoo shut down in 2008, most of its animals have been sent to animal parks abroad. The giraffes, a tight-knit group, stayed behind — they travel best when they’re young and smaller and easier to transport, the zoo said.

Some animals were sent to Algeria in June, with help from the North African country’s army. French motorcycle police accompanied the convoy to the airport, cutting off traffic on Paris’ ring road to ensure their safe passage.

A hippo named Pelagie was supposed to be with them. But though she had practiced stepping into her shipping crate for weeks, she grew frightened once inside and banged the box up. The zoo is still looking for a home for her and her partner, Rodolphe, who stayed behind with her.

— Associated Press

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Photo: A computer-generated image provided by France’s National Museum of Natural History shows one of the future zones of the Zoological Park of Paris. Credit: MNHM / Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. — A SeaWorld killer whale snatched a trainer from a poolside platform Wednesday and thrashed the woman around underwater, killing her in front of a horrified audience. It marked the third time the animal had been involved in a human death.

Distraught audience members were hustled out of the stadium immediately, and the park was closed.

Trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, was one of the park’s most experienced. Her sister said Brancheau wouldn’t want anything done to the orca that killed her because she loved the animals like children.

Brancheau was rubbing Tilikum after a noontime show when the 12,000-pound killer whale grabbed her and pulled her into the water, said Chuck Tompkins, head of animal training at all SeaWorld parks. It was not clear if she drowned or died from the thrashing.

Because of his size and the previous deaths, trainers were not supposed to get into the water with Tilikum, and only about a dozen of the park’s 29 trainers worked with him. Brancheau had more experience with the 30-year-old killer whale than most.

"We recognized he was different," Tompkins said. He said no decision has been made yet about what will happen to Tilikum, such as transferring him to another facility.

A retired couple from Michigan told The Associated Press that they were among some stragglers in the audience who had stayed to watch the animals and trainers.

Eldon Skaggs, 72, said Brancheau’s interaction with Tilikum appeared leisurely and informal at first. But then the killer whale "pulled her under and started swimming around with her," he said.

Skaggs said an alarm sounded and staff rushed the audience out of the stadium as workers scrambled around with nets.

Skaggs said he heard that during an earlier show the killer whale was not responding to directions. Others who attended the earlier show said the creature was behaving like an ornery child.

The couple left and didn’t find out until later that the trainer had died.

"We were just a little bit stunned," said Skaggs’ wife, Sue Nichols, 67.

Another audience member, Victoria Biniak, told WKMG-TV the killer 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."

Two other witnesses told the Orlando Sentinel that the orca grabbed the woman by the upper arm and tossed her around in its mouth while swimming rapidly around the tank. Brazilian tourist Joao Lucio DeCosta Sobrinho and his girlfriend were at an underwater viewing area when they suddenly saw a killer whale with a person in its mouth.

The couple said they watched the killer whale show at the park two days earlier and came back to take pictures. But on Wednesday the creatures appeared agitated.

"It was terrible. It’s very difficult to see the image," Sobrinho said.

A SeaWorld spokesman said Tilikum was one of three orcas blamed for killing a trainer in 1991 after the woman lost her balance and fell in the pool at Sealand of the Pacific near Victoria, British Columbia.

Steve Huxter, who was head of Sealand’s animal care and training department then, said Wednesday he’s surprised it happened again. He says Tilikum was a well-behaved, balanced animal.

Tilikum was also involved in a 1999 death, when the body of a man who had sneaked by SeaWorld security was found draped over him. The man either jumped, fell or was pulled into the frigid water and died of hypothermia, though he was also bruised and scratched by Tilikum.

Later Wednesday, SeaWorld in San Diego also suspended its killer whale show. It was not clear if the killer whale show has been suspended at SeaWorld’s San Antonio location, which is closed until the weekend.

According to a profile of Brancheau in the Sentinel in 2006, she was one of SeaWorld Orlando’s leading trainers. It was a trip to SeaWorld at age 9 that made her want to follow that career path. Dawn was the youngest of six children who grew up near Cedar Lake, Ind.

"I remember walking down the aisle (of Shamu Stadium) and telling my mom, ‘This is what I want to do,’" she said in the article.

Brancheau worked her way into a leadership role at Shamu Stadium during her career with SeaWorld, starting at the Sea Lion & Otter Stadium before spending 10 years working with killer whales, the newspaper said.

She also addressed the dangers of the job.

"You can’t put yourself in the water unless you trust them and they trust you," Brancheau said.

Brancheau’s older sister, Diane Gross, said the trainer "would not want anything done to that whale."

The trainer was married and didn’t have children.

"She loved the whales like her children, she loved all of them," said Gross, of Schererville, Ind. "They all had personalities, good days and bad days."

Gross said the family viewed her sister’s death as an unfortunate accident, adding: "It just hasn’t sunk in yet."

Steve McCulloch, founder and program manager at the Marine Mammal Research and Conservation Program at Harbor Branch/Florida Atlantic University, said the killer whale may have been playing, but it is too early to tell.

"I wouldn’t jump to conclusions," he said. "These are very large powerful marine mammals. They exhibit this type of behavior in the wild."

Tompkins, the SeaWorld head trainer, said of the orca: "We have no idea what was going through his head."

Mike Wald, a spokesman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration office in Atlanta, said his agency had dispatched an investigator from Tampa.

Wednesday’s death was not the first attack on killer whale trainers at SeaWorld parks.

In November 2006, a trainer was bitten and held underwater several times by a killer whale during a show at SeaWorld’s San Diego park.

The trainer, Kenneth Peters, escaped with a broken foot. The 17-foot orca that attacked him was the dominant female of SeaWorld San Diego’s seven killer whales. She had attacked Peters two other times, in 1993 and 1999.

In 2004, another whale at the company’s San Antonio park tried to hit one of the trainers and attempted to bite him. He also escaped.

Wednesday’s attack was the second time in two months that an orca trainer was killed at a marine park. On Dec. 24, 29-year-old Alexis Martinez Hernandez fell from a killer whale and crushed his ribcage at Loro Parque on the Spanish island of Tenerife. Park officials said the killer whale, a 14-year-old named Keto, made an unusual move as the two practiced a trick in which the creature lifts the trainer and leaps into the air.

— Associated Press

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Photo: Tilikum in a 1999 photo. Credit: Frank Rivera / Orlando Sentinel

CATSKILL, N.Y. — The 177 horses seized in a raid of an upstate New York farm last year were malnourished, a prosecutor said Tuesday at the start of the trial of the farm’s owner, a prominent thoroughbred horse breeder who was banned from racing.

Ernie Paragallo, the former owner of 1996 Kentucky Derby favorite and fifth-place finisher Unbridled’s Song, was charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty after the April raid by state police and animal welfare investigators.

In opening statements, Greene County Dist. Atty. Terry Wilhelm said the horses’ bodies had deteriorated for lack of nourishment.

Michael Howard, a lawyer for Paragallo, said he will present documentation that the horses were properly cared for.

Paragallo, a Long Island resident, has denied abusing the animals but has been stripped of racing privileges in New York by the state Racing and Wagering Board and by the New York Racing Assn.

Paragallo, 52, had started more than 4,500 horses and earned more than $20 million in purses at the time of his arrest.

Scores of malnourished horses, many of them infested with internal and external parasites, were found in the raid of the 500-acre farm in Coxsackie in the Hudson Valley on April 8, 2009. Most were later adopted by rescue groups and horse farms around the country.

Two days after the raid, Paragallo told the Associated Press he didn’t intend to harm any of the horses and blamed their mistreatment on "mismanagement."

Paragallo is expected to testify this week at the non-jury trial in Greene County Court in Catskill, 20 miles south of Albany.

If convicted of the misdemeanor counts, Paragallo could face up to two years in jail and $35,000 in fines.

— Associated Press

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Photo: Paragallo, at right, listens as Greene County Dist. Atty. Terry J. Wilhelm, left, presents his opening remarks Tuesday. Paragallo’s attorney, Michael C. Howard, center, looks on. Credit: Lance Wheeler / Associated Press

A recent City Council decision means a crackdown on unlicensed dogs in L.A. (and a boon to the city’s coffers). A motion unanimously approved by the council Tuesday directs L.A. Animal Services to coordinate with the Department of Water and Power, which keeps records of residences with dogs. Our colleague Carla Hall has the details in a story Wednesday; here’s an excerpt:

There are 4 million people in the city of Los Angeles and who knows how many dogs. Of its canine residents, the city is sure only of this: About 120,000 are licensed — as required by law — and a lot of others are not.

"Nobody has ever done a census. It’s anyone’s guess how many are out there," said Kathy Davis, general manager of L.A.’s Department of Animal Services, who declined to pick a number. "But we certainly don’t assume we have all of them licensed."

In this time of budget cuts, that spells opportunity for revenue.

Dogs don’t make money. But the City Council is betting that going after their owners for license fees will help fill L.A.’s cash-starved coffers.

A license for a sterilized dog costs $15. An owner with an unaltered dog has to pay $100 — plus possibly $120 more for the breeder’s license technically required for unaltered dogs. (There are exemptions for some canines, including service dogs.)

If, as council President Eric Garcetti contends, roughly two-thirds of the city’s dogs are not licensed, that could mean at least an additional $3.6 million in fees even if all those scofflaw dog owners paid only the lowest license fee.

THERE’S MORE; READ THE REST.

Photo: Animal license canvasser Alex Marquez receives a license payment from a dog owner on Feb. 23. Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times

LONDON — A perky British Labrador whose bomb-sniffing exploits helped save lives in Afghanistan was decorated for canine courage in a ceremony at London’s Imperial War Museum on Wednesday.

Eight-year-old Treo joins a menagerie of heroic animals honored over the years with a special award known as the Dickin medal, including 32 pigeons, three horses and a cat.

Sgt. Dave Heyhoe, the black Lab’s handler, said he was "very proud indeed," adding the award was not just for him and his dog but "for every dog and handler that’s working out in Afghanistan or Iraq."

Treo merely flicked out his rosy tongue as he and Heyhoe posed for photographs with the silvery medal. He squirmed as the medal was fitted around his neck.

The military nominated Treo for the prize in recognition of his help uncovering a series of Taliban bombs during his time serving in Helmand Province, an insurgency hot spot, in 2008. The Labrador is the medal’s 63rd recipient since its inception in 1943, according to the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, the charity that awards the prize.

Man’s best friend has won a big share of the medals, including a collie named Rob who joined British commandos in repeated parachute operations behind enemy lines during World War II.

More recently, Sadie, another bomb-sniffing dog, was awarded the Dickin medal for helping to alert coalition forces to an explosive hidden under sandbags in Kabul in 2005.

Other animals, notably carrier pigeons used in World War II, have bagged honors as well.

Countries from Australia to Hungary occasionally honor exceptionally brave animals with medals in a variety of contexts.

There’s no equivalent to the Dickin medal in the United States, although military animals have been honored with medals or memorials on an unofficial, ad hoc basis.

The most famous U.S. recipient, a World War I mutt named Sgt. Stubby, served in 17 battles, was wounded in a grenade attack and survived several gassings. Between locating wounded Allied soldiers in the trenches, he even managed to help nab a German spy.

Stubby, now stuffed and on display at the Smithsonian, was awarded several medals, including a Purple Heart, and the canine was made a lifetime member of the American Legion. But the practice of giving medals to animals was eventually abandoned by the U.S. military on the grounds that the practice risks devaluing the awards given to soldiers.

Lisa Nickless, a spokeswoman for the animal charity, said no one had raised any such concerns about Treo.

"He saved human life," she said.

— Associated Press

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Top photo: Treo poses with his Dickin medal at the Imperial War Museum in London on Feb. 24. credit: Sang Tan / Associated Press

Bottom photo: Treo poses with his handler, Sgt. Dave Heyhoe, at the Imperial War Museum on Feb. 24. Credit: Sang Tan / Associated Press

HANOI, Vietnam — Thousands of Vietnamese fishermen are giving a royal send-off to a 15-ton dead whale, gathering at a southern Vietnamese village to pay homage at a funeral for the creature they call "Your Excellency."

Nearly 10,000 people have converged in Bac Lieu province to bid farewell to the 52-foot (16-meter) whale since he was dragged ashore Monday, said coast guard official Do Tien Ha.

They burned incense in his honor and planned to build a temple at the site of his burial, which was scheduled for Tuesday. Nearly 3,000 people will attend the whale’s last rites, to be held at the mouth of the Cai Cung River.

In Vietnam’s fishing culture, whales are considered sacred. They are referred to by the title "ngai," the same honorific used for kings, emperors and other esteemed leaders.

"Whenever whales arrive, dead or alive, local fishermen believe they bring luck and safety," Ha said by phone from Bac Lieu.

The dead whale was spotted 26 miles (42 kilometers) off the coast Sunday, and several dozen fishermen on 10 boats spent a day hauling it ashore, he said.

— Associated Press

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Photo: A dead whale is dragged ashore in Vinh Thinh, Bac Lieu province, Vietnam, on Feb. 22. Credit: Huynh Su / Associated Press

An incident involving an orca left a SeaWorld Orlando marine mammal trainer dead Wednesday. The identity of the victim has not been released, although SeaWorld president Dan Brown confirmed during a news conference that it was a senior female trainer at the park.

A witness, Victoria Biniak, told Florida news source WKMG that the trainer was grabbed by an orca shortly after delivering a speech to an audience gathered for a public whale show. But a spokesperson for the Orlando County Sheriff’s Office, Jim Solomons, said that it appeared the trainer had slipped or fallen into the tank, apparently contradicting Biniak’s description. "This appears to be an accidental death, a tragic death," Solomons said. 

The trainer was already dead when emergency personnel arrived, Orange County Fire Rescue spokesperson John Mulhall told WKMG. An investigation into her death is underway, and Brown said that "all of [SeaWorld’s] standard operating procedures will be under review" in light of the incident.

The whale, identified by WKMG as a very large adult male named Tilikum, "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," Biniak told the station.

Another witness, David Dalton, told the WFTV news station that "out of nowhere, two of the bigger whales just kind of flipped out, going as fast as they could in the water." After the incident, SeaWorld Orlando staff "cut off the show … quickly," Dalton said. Although park guests were evacuated from the Shamu Stadium area where the incident occurred and the whale show was canceled, SeaWorld Orlando has not been fully evacuated, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

SeaWorld in San Diego canceled its Shamu show, at least for Wednesday, after the fatal Florida incident.

Tilikum is apparently a wild-captured, rather than captive-bred, orca who also had some degree of involvement in the earlier deaths of two other humans.

In 1991, when he occupied a Canadian park called Sealand of the Pacific, a young female trainer named Keltie Byrne apparently slipped and fell into the orca tank in which Tilikum and other whales were swimming. Another trainer, Karen McGee, recalled later that she tried to help Byrne out of the tank, but the whales made her rescue impossible. McGee said she thought the whales believed the incident "was a play session, and she was in the water."

Later, in a move apparently unrelated to the Sealand incident, Tilikum was sent to SeaWorld Orlando. (He went on to father numerous offspring.) But at the Florida park, another bizarre incident ended with a man’s death in 1999. The man, later identified as 27-year-old David Dukes of South Carolina, was found dead in Tilikum’s tank. From the Orlando Sentinel:

Authorities later concluded the man, who had either snuck into SeaWorld after hours or hidden in the park until it closed, most likely drowned after suffering hypothermia in the 55-degree water.

But they also said it appeared Tillikum had bit the man and tore off his swimming trunks, likely believing he was a toy to play with.

The Sentinel reported that the park remained crowded after Wednesday’s tragic incident, in part because of a private event being held there. The Shamu Stadium area has been cordoned off, and park staff are explaining to visitors that that section of the park has been closed for the remainder of the day.

In an interview with the Sentinel, former dolphin trainer Russ Rector said he believes the act of confining animals like orcas makes them dangerous. "Captivity is abusive to these animals. And the abuse mounts up. And when these animals snap — just for a minute — they’re so big and can be so dangerous that it’s like a shotgun," Rector said.

Another marine mammal expert, Nancy Black, hypothesized in an interview with WKMG that Tilikum might have been playing rather than trying to hurt the trainer. "They are very intelligent creatures. They have emotions, and feelings," Black told the station. "Maybe it was unhappy in the situation, maybe it was bored."

— Lindsay Barnett

Video: Tilikum in a video uploaded to YouTube in 2007. Credit: Savie4lf

We could hardly believe our eyes when we saw this amazing young rabbit chowing down on some formula and then licking its lips in satisfaction. This animal is so precious that it could easily be mistaken for a high-priced adorable robot — but we’ve been assured that it’s an actual, flesh-and-blood rabbit.

Wildlife rehabilitator Mary Cummins of the L.A.-based organization Animal Advocates shares this video on her YouTube channel (which also contains some other favorite videos of ours, including one that shows two young skunks doing a sort of modified moonwalk dance on their front paws).

Cummins explains that the young rabbit — a cottontail who narrowly escaped a dog attack — came to Animal Advocates at the age of 12 days. It’s now nearly 3 weeks old, and it’ll remain in the rehabilitation facility for a few more weeks before being released into the wild. It’ll be set free near the spot in Acton where it was found, Cummins explains — but as far from dogs as possible.

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— Lindsay Barnett

Video: MaryCummins via YouTube

Three rare California condors in northern Arizona died last month because they ingested lead pellets while feeding on carrion, according to test results released Monday.

The deaths from lead poisoning are the first in three years among condors in Arizona and Utah, condor recovery program officials said. The Peregrine Fund recovered the bodies of a female condor and her year-old chick from the Grand Canyon and a young male from the Arizona-Utah border last month.

That the birds were foraging in southern Utah presents a challenge for recovery program officials, who now must convince hunters there to stop using lead ammunition.

"We have to remain optimistic because we’ve seen such progress in Arizona, and I guess what it means is we have more work to do," said Chris Parish, who oversees the release of the condors in Arizona for the fund.

Utah already is educating hunters about the effects that lead ammunition has on condors. The birds feed on dead animals, often big game killed by hunters or the entrails left behind when they are field dressed.

High levels of lead can shut down a condor’s digestive system, causing them to starve to death.

Utah’s program is modeled after one in Arizona, which asks hunters to voluntarily use lead-free ammunition. Utah plans to give coupons for free non-lead ammunition to hunters in certain areas.

"Utah sportsmen are conservation-minded," Jim Parrish, nongame avian coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said in a release. "We’re confident they’ll step up to the challenge and that our program, combined with the highly successful program in Arizona, will keep the condor population healthy and allow it to grow."

Condors once numbered in the thousands across North America but were nearly extinct by the early 1980s from the effects of hunting, lead poisoning and habitat encroachment. The final 22 were captured in California and a breeding program was started.

There are about 350 condors alive today, with about half in captive breeding programs in California, Arizona and Mexico.

Since the reintroduction program begin in Arizona in 1996, 45 condors have died — 15 of them from lead poisoning.

Environmental groups pushed for a nationwide ban on lead ammunition, similar to regulations in place in California.

Jeff Miller of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity said the Arizona population continually is exposed to high levels of lead and it was just a matter of time before some ate enough to be killed.

"It’s tragic, but it was predictable," he said. "Until we come up with an effective way to keep lead out of the food chain, we’re going to keep seeing these periodic tragic events."

Kathy Sullivan, condor program coordinator for Arizona’s Department of Game and Fish, said the state’s program had a success rate between 80% and 90% over three years. The true test, she said, is in whether Utah hunters join the voluntary effort.

"Until we have similar participation from hunters in Utah, we’re really not going to know even how effective our program is," she said. "The bird could eat in Arizona one week and then in Utah the next."

— Associated Press

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Photo: Two California condors (not among those that died of lead poisoning) perch along the south rim of the Grand Canyon in 2004. Credit: Chad Olson / Associated Press

Earlier this month, we told you about a disturbing trend affecting brown pelicans: Large numbers of the birds were being found malnourished, begging for food or, in some cases, dead, along the Pacific coast in Oregon and California. The reason for their distress was considered a mystery, but wildlife officials have recently announced what they believe to be the cause of their distress. Our colleague Jill Leovy has the details on The Times’ environment blog, Greenspace; here’s an excerpt:

The mysterious pelican malady that left hundreds of the birds sick and stranded along the Oregon and California coasts this
winter was probably caused by a combination of bad weather and fish
shortages related to El Niño, state Fish and Game officials said Monday.

After ruling out such potential causes as disease or marine toxins,
a group of scientists from state and federal agencies, nonprofit groups
and Sea World in San Diego concluded that a simple scarcity of pelican
prey, such as anchovies and sardines,
probably combined with winter storms to produce flocks of hungry, wet,
soiled pelicans, dying on beaches or looking for handouts.

Of the hundreds of birds washed, warmed and fed at rescue centers,
about a third died, and many that were not rescued also succumbed.

Fish and Game officials called it a "cyclical event" that amounted
to a perfect storm of bad luck for the birds. Many had strayed too far
north during their annual migration, then arrived back in California
weak and emaciated, only to find their usual food sources depleted and
the weather inclement. They began eating the wrong things, lost weight.,
and got cold.

A similar event struck pelicans along the coast a year ago, although fewer turned up at rescue centers.

THERE’S MORE; READ THE REST.

Photo: A few of the 75 brown pelicans rescued in the Bay Area rest in a recovery area
at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in
Cordelia, Calif., on Feb. 5. Credit: Rick Roach / Associated Press

Anyone who’s ever glanced at the website PETAKillsAnimals.com is familiar, whether they know it or not, with a group that calls itself the Center for Consumer Freedom.

The Center for Consumer Freedom — headed up by a lobbyist for the food, alcoholic beverage and tobacco industries named Richard Berman — has long been at odds with groups like PETA and the Humane Society of the United States. (For the record, though, it has also worked to discredit non-animal-related advocacy groups including Mothers Against Drunk Driving through its ActivistCash.com website. Another of its websites, ObesityMyths.com, attempts to debunk what it describes as "myths" about human health. Among those "myths": "Obesity will shorten life expectancy" and "Obesity has made diabetes epidemic.")

Now, though, the CCF has ratcheted up the rhetoric against the Humane Society by launching a new website devoted to discrediting the group: HumaneWatch.org. As part of HumaneWatch’s kickoff, the Center purchased a full-page ad in the New York Times that argues that the Humane Society "gives less than one-half of 1% of its $100-million budget to hands-on pet shelters."

We’ve heard this criticism all too often, and it’s an argument we find supremely disingenuous. One can certainly care about animals and not support the Humane Society — many of our animal-loving readers have written passionate comments that explain their rationales for not supporting the group. But those readers explain that they fundamentally disagree with the Humane Society’s aims and tactics — and their arguments are reasonable and sound.

What’s not reasonable or sound is vilifying the group for its failure to be something it never claimed to be: an animal shelter. Arguing that the Humane Society is failing by not donating enough to local shelters is like arguing that the president is failing to stand up for the poor because he hasn’t volunteered at your local soup kitchen.

Our colleague, agribusiness reporter P.J. Huffstutter, explains the rationale for the CCF’s latest attack in The Times’ business blog, Money & Co.:

So, why target [the Humane Society]? Well, for one thing, [the Humane Society] has become increasingly involved in pushing through legislation that alters how animals are treated in the food-production system. The organization was a key voice in the successful campaign last year to get California voters to pass Proposition 2, which was aimed at preventing "cruel confinement" of farm animals (like smaller cages for egg-laying chickens or gestation crates for pregnant sows).

That, of course, grabbed the attention of CCF. …

According to CCF, the public doesn’t realize that most of their donations aren’t going to help lost cats and dogs, or help out underfunded animal shelters. Instead, the majority of the money allegedly is being used to "bankroll anti-meat campaigns and PETA-style propaganda," said David Martosko, CCF’s director of research.

In his short biography on the HumaneWatch website, Martosko describes himself as someone who "[loves] animals. But not obsessively so. And I’m not a big fan of people who put the life of a lab rat above the life of a cancer patient."

He speaks of a distinction between animal welfare and animal rights: "Animal ‘rights’ philosophy says that even if you gave your dairy cows three meals a day, evening rubdowns, waterbeds to sleep on, iPods, and Nintendo Wii privileges, it would still wrong to milk them." (Full disclosure: We’re vegan, and our issue with milk isn’t that it’s fundamentally "wrong" to milk cows — how silly. Instead, we take issue with the inextricable link between the dairy industry and the veal industry. Since dairy cows must be kept pregnant in order to continue to produce milk, the industry produces an excess of calves. Female calves, of course, can go on to become dairy cows themselves. Since male calves will never give milk, a large percentage of them will spend their short lives confined to veal crates before  ending up as someone’s veal dinner.)

If the CCF wants to discredit the Humane Society, it’ll find plenty of animal advocates — including a number of Unleashed readers — who share its core belief that the Humane Society’s tactics are misguided, wrongheaded or don’t go far enough toward protecting animals. It could make a number of well-reasoned arguments, but instead its New York Times ad rests on a straw-man argument, refuting a "claim" that the Humane Society doesn’t make.

The Humane Society is, according to its mission statement, "the nation’s largest and most effective animal protection organization" — an organization that works to help animals through legislative efforts and large-scale investigations into alleged instances of animal cruelty. Donating to your local animal shelter or rescue group is admirable; donating to a legislative advocacy group, one could argue, is also admirable. But these groups have fundamentally different ways of achieving their aims, and arguing that a legislative group is wrong for not operating an animal shelter is as misguided as arguing that an animal shelter is wrong for not lobbying on a national scale for animal-friendly reforms.

Wayne Pacelle, the Humane Society’s president and chief executive, took to his blog Tuesday about the CCF’s New York Times ad. "The ad … says many things. But one thing it doesn’t say is the following: Why would a corporate front group take after a venerable organization like the Humane Society of the United States," Pacelle wrote. "Here’s the answer: They are bothering us because, by threatening animal abuse, we are threatening their bottom line."

Martosko was quick to respond to Pacelle in his own blog post Tuesday: "Our HumaneWatch project is just getting started. What you’ve seen so far is just the first trickle out of a very, very backed-up faucet. So perhaps we can count on Whiny Wayne having tantrum after tantrum this year. Fine with us. We’ll just keep speaking up for the shelter animals."

Speaking up for the shelter animals? Somehow, coming from the group that rails against Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s "fanatical conviction that no one should be allowed to drink anything before driving," we doubt that concern for shelter animals is really at the heart of its latest campaign.

— Lindsay Barnett

Photo: A dog at the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services’ North Central shelter. Is the Humane Society failing in its mission to help animals by not donating enough to shelters like North Central? The Center for Consumer Freedom says yes. Credit: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Indonesian park
ranger escaped an attack by a Komodo dragon, the world’s largest lizard
species, when his colleagues heard his cries for help and drove the
reptile away.

Marcelinus Subanghadir was
outside his hut on Komodo Island late Monday when a nearly 7-foot-long  
dragon grabbed hold of his right foot, Komodo
National Park chief Tamen Sitorus said.

The
dragon had Subanghadir’s foot clamped in its shark-like, serrated teeth
until fellow rangers heard his screams and drove it off with wooden
clubs, Sitorus said.

Subanghadir, 34, suffered deep lacerations and was recovering at a hospital on nearby Bali.

Komodo
dragons can be found in the wild only on the eastern Indonesian islands
of Komodo, Padar and Rinca. The lizards — thought to number fewer than
4,000 — can grow longer than 10 feet and weigh 150 pounds.

An 8-year-old boy was killed by one of the lizards in 2007 on Komodo Island.

— Associated Press

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Photo: Komodo dragons bask in the sun outside a park ranger hut on Rinca Island in Indonesia in 2009. Credit: Dita Alangkara / Associated Press