![]() It wasn't the first time Tilikum killed someone, either. The attack happened during a performance. ![]() An autopsy later determined that she died from a combination of blunt force trauma to the head, neck, and torso, plus drowning. Maybe even the smaller ones, too.Īccording to ABC News, the whale, called Tilikum, grabbed Brancheau by the ponytail and pulled her into the pool, then began violently swinging her around. So what we can really learn from this story and others like it is that you should always avoid falling down in the presence of large, predatory felines. ![]() Walliser went on to write a book and continues to work with tigers today. According to The Guardian, they had water cannons and fire extinguishers on hand and immediately descended on the attacking tigers, but not before Walliser nearly lost his left hand and sustained injuries to his head and upper body.Ī physician who happened to be in the audience attended Walliser until help arrived, because evidently the show's safety people had the water cannon thing covered but didn't hire a doctor. Happily, this particular show was better prepared for such an incident and did not have to go back to the kitchen to put kebab sticks on the stovetop or anything. Just like the unfortunate Thomas Maccarte, 28-year-old Christian Walliser tripped and fell and the tigers said, "Heck, it is a dinner show," and then pounced on him. By the time they actually managed to drive the lions away, it was too late for Maccarte, who died from massive blood loss. Circus officials tried to stop them by firing blanks, and then by shooting them with BB guns from the rifle galleries, and then by beating them with "irons" that had been heated in a nearby fire, so at this point not much can really be said about the circus' safety procedures. To make a horrific story less permanently psychologically damaging, let's just say that Maccarte, who was dressed as a Roman gladiator, tripped and fell in the ring and the lions saw an opportunity. For the full, bloody, blow-by-blow you can read the New York Times' account of the attack in their archives, but try not to eat anything immediately beforehand. In 1872, a lion trainer named Thomas Maccarte, who was missing one arm because of a previous lion attack that somehow failed to convince him that a career change was in order, was performing in Bolton, England, when his lions decided they'd had just about enough of him and killed him. Since that day there have been no live-animal circus performances in Honolulu, not really for the animals' sake but because people don't want them there. ![]() Police shot her 87 times, and she died in the street. Her trainer tried to intervene and she trampled him to death, before breaking out of the tent, trampling a third person, and then going on a rampage during rush hour traffic in the Kakaako business district. It was the body of her critically injured groom. On the night of the attack, she entered the ring rolling something in front of her, but it wasn't a log. The year before the attack, Tyke injured one of her trainers, and in a separate incident smashed through a doorway in an apparent escape attempt. Signs that she was not cut out for the job came early - a trainer who worked with Tyke years earlier told the LA Times she would "resist the training" and "run away when you tried to do anything with her." It's almost not fair to call her "difficult and dangerous" - she was an elephant, and she should have been living wild where she could be as difficult and dangerous as she wanted.
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