Getting Off With Murder

I see that the killer whale that drowned his trainer at SeaWorld of Orlando, Tilikum, is going back to work.

I know Barry Bonds is thinking, "Damn! I could've killed my trainer?"

I get that we hold animals to a low standard.  Sometimes.  I mean, if a dog or a snake kills somebody, it gets euthanized, which is a euphemism for 'executed.'  I think the word is interesting; I worked at an animal lab in Houston where the animals were 'sacrificed' after being subjected to different chemicals.  It seemed to me that the animals had already made a big sacrifice in being exposed to stuff that might very well harm them.  If they survived that, WE were making a sacrifice?  Besides, the word 'sacrifice,' calls up images of making a tribute to the gods.  I guess, since we had no more use for these animals, maybe we could get the gods to give us something for killing them, which we were going to do anyhow.  Maybe some rain.  No, Houston has enough rain.  Maybe a tax break.

I mean, it's not like we could keep these animals.  I don't know how many were involved, but it was certainly more than a thousand mice, rats, and rabbits a year.  OTOH, if you only have a few killer whales, and you paid lots of money to bring them to your giant aquarium, and you have thousands of people paying to come see them... well, you don't want to waste an asset like that, right?

I'm not actually in favor of putting a cap in Tilikum's ass.  Like they say, killer whales will be killer whales.

RIP, trainer Dawn Brancheau.