Community | September 07, 2010 | 29 comments

Sumar, A 12-Year-Old Killer Whale, Has Died Today at SeaWorld, San Diego, California

source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/07/california.killer.whale/index.html

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EthicalVegan
Killer whale dies at San Diego SeaWorld
By the CNN Wire Staff
September 7, 2010 7:46 p.m. EDT


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Killer whale dies at SeaWorld in San Diego, California
* Sumar was lethargic Monday; cause of death won't be known until necropsy is complete
* Sumar was able to exhibit about 100 "behaviors"



(CNN) -- A 12-year-old male killer whale, who showed signs of being ill only the day before, died Tuesday afternoon at SeaWorld in San Diego, California, the park announced.

The cause of death for Sumar won't be known until a necropsy is complete, SeaWorld said. Results may not be known for several weeks.

"It's a very sad day," spokesman Dave Koontz told CNN. "He was a great young killer whale. He was sharp."

Sumar, who weighed about 5,000 pounds, had been at SeaWorld San Diego since 2001, coming from an Ohio park. He was one of seven killer whales at SeaWorld and was able to exhibit about 100 "behaviors," Koontz said.

The killer whale had no medical history or problems with behavior, the spokesman said, adding that there was no evidence of communicable disease. "He had a great disposition."

"Trainers had noticed that Sumar was acting lethargic yesterday (Monday) afternoon. Park veterinarians began a regimen of antibiotics to help try to stabilize his condition while they attempted to determine the cause of his illness," a SeaWorld statement said.

"His condition worsened today and a decision was made to cancel the 12:30 p.m. Shamu show, so that trainers and veterinarians could continue to devote their full attention to Sumar. Despite these efforts, Sumar did not survive."

Sumar's trainers and support staff were devastated by the sudden loss and are sharing stories, Koontz said. "The loss of any animal is difficult, but that was even more so."

Orlando, Florida-based SeaWorld was recently fined $75,000 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for three safety violations, including one classified as willful, after an animal trainer was killed by a whale in Orlando in February. SeaWorld, which also has a location in San Antonio, Texas, said it would contest the violations.

The last killer whale to die at the San Diego venue was Splash, who was sickly when SeaWorld adopted him. He was nursed back to health and lived 15 years until 2005.

No public memorial for Sumar is planned, although fans will be able to comment on the park's Facebook page, Koontz said.

SeaWorld said its shows would resume on schedule Wednesday.
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29 comments // Sumar, A 12-Year-Old Killer Whale, Has Died Today at SeaWorld, San Diego, California

  • GISchmo
    • +1
      GISchmo  

    • Sad story. It's becoming apparent that keeping these magnificent creatures captive for the sake of education/entertaiment is not worth the cost.

    • 1 year ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • KSirys
    • +1
      KSirys  

    • This is tragic! I hope people realize this is not natural for them, it's a cage and they are doing hard labor, to entertain other people.

      It's sad....

    • 1 year ago
  • Moops803
    • 0
      Moops803  

    • They're too intelligent to be kept captive. They get depressed. Was the whale born in captivity or captured from the wild?

    • 1 year ago
  • tommic
    • +2
      tommic  

    • Free all captive mammals, they are not here for our amusement in parks. Research claims are bullshit, its all about money. Free the whales

    • 1 year ago
  • Blkwdw
    • +1
      Blkwdw  

    • I've had to bite the bullet and stop patronizing these places including zoos its worth it. A little less entertainment for the human means freedom for thousands of animals.

    • 1 year ago
  • Kurta
    • 0
      Kurta  
    • Blkwdw:

      Right. It's pretty bad when we have 300 TV channels, a vast internet database, a library of amazing knowledge and a million other things to entertain us, yet we still have to exploit animals as well. Perhaps we need to re-learn humility as a species.

      A wiser person than I was correct to say that we have become "over-entertained and under-informed" as a society.

    • 1 year ago
  • Blkwdw
  • Guyatthebusstation
  • Michael_Ortega
    • 0
      Michael_Ortega  
    • Guyatthebusstation:

      They actually cut up the whale into 40lbs pieces and put them in boxes to be cremated.
      There was a burger shop next to one of the crematoriums where they burned the whales, and they decided to sell a whale burger. Seaworld had to ask them not to sell a burger with that name.

    • 1 year ago
  • Kurta
  • Guyatthebusstation
  • Kurta
  • wellhunggimp
  • AnantaEphemera
  • EthicalVegan
  • AnantaEphemera
  • shareen83
    • +1
      shareen83  

    • yeah im not even reading the whole thing but its just wrong and disgusting that whales are kept in pools. And why people feel it is amusing and pay to see this is beyond me!

    • 1 year ago
  • Chris_Walker
    • 0
      Chris_Walker  
    • shareen83:

      It is sad that such intelligent and beautiful animals are held captive outside their natural environments, but another point of view could be that these animals are spokes persons of their species exciting the human race, children possibly future scientist and environmentalist come to see these shows... I regress but what is more sicking are the fortune 500 companies that have been polluting and destroying your grand children's world.

    • 1 year ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Chris_Walker:

      There are far, far better ways for future scientists and environmentalists to learn about our sentient beings. Seeing dolphins in captivity is NOT the way -- if nothing else, there's not one single "natural" thing about their enclosures. What paying people are seeing is utter desperation, exasperation, frustration, human-caused aggression, and all things UNnatural.

    • 1 year ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
    • +1
      EthicalVegan  
    • EthicalVegan:

      From list of captive whales (Wikipedia)...

      Sumar

      Sumar is a male Orca born at SeaWorld Orlando in Florida on May 14, 1998. His mother is Taima and he is her first calf. Just six months after birth, an incident happened when, during a show, his mother attacked him, pushing him against the glass, trying to make him fall. The crowd was evacuated and the show canceled. The trainers tried to move Taima to another tank and finally separated her from her son. Since then, the two of them have been always separated and Kalina and Katina became his surrogate mothers until he was transferred to SeaWorld San Diego in California on March 8, 1999. Afterwards, he spent a few months at now-closed SeaWorld Ohio before being transferred back to the San Diego park. There, he was mothered by Corky II.

      He is very gentle with other Orcas[43] and trainers. He spends a lot of time with Nakai. However, the dominant female Kasatka has a tendency to pick on him time to time. He is one of three males currently at the park, and is seen as a possible breeding male in the future; Nakai, the younger male, is still too young to breed, and the older male Ulises seems to have a low sperm count and has failed all times to impregnate a female. Sumar is approaching full size for a typical bull orca: his dorsal fin is more and more leaning to its left, and it will not be long before its completely collapsed, his flukes are beginning to curl under. He is about 4.6 m (15.3 feet) long and weighs around 5,300 pounds (2,400 kg). He is often used frequently for shows.[44]

      Sumar died at SeaWorld in San Diego, California, on Tuesday, September 7, 2010, at the age of 12. Trainers noticed that the whale was not feeling well, Monday, September 6, 2010 which resulted in veterinarians being notified, blood samples drawn, and antibiotics administered. Despite measures taken by Sumar's veterinarian team, Sumar became increasingly ill by Tuesday. He was dead shortly before 1:45 PM (Pacific time). Sumar's death prompted the canceling of the park's Orca shows for the day. The whale, removed from the stadium, will be necropsied. He was set to be the next captive breeding bull Orca, after Tilikum.

    • 1 year ago
  • Kurta
    • +1
      Kurta  
    • EthicalVegan:

      Yeah, something tells me Mr. Darwin never considered THIS environment when tweeking the details of the Orca. What a beautiful creature! I'm highly pissed about another fiasco like this making headlines YET AGAIN!

    • 1 year ago
  • Kurta
    • +3
      Kurta  

    • Not good. Not good. I think we all need to reevaluate the ethics of places that exploit animals. This whale should have lived a true life and died in the wild.

      "We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form."
      -William Ralph Inge (1928)

    • 1 year ago
  • thetrimsmith
  • Kurta
    • +3
      Kurta  
    • thetrimsmith:

      I think any captivity is cruel. It's unfair to deny a wild creature it's freedom. It's even worse to abuse them for the sake of entertainment. I consider it a form of slavery.

    • 1 year ago
  • thetrimsmith
  • Kurta
    • +1
      Kurta  
    • thetrimsmith:

      Very true. And whales and their kin are certainly top-notch thinkers. I can't begin to imagine what they think in such a situation. I truly believe many of them simply go crazy and die from stress, regardless of what the PR people tell us. Sure animals die all the time but there's usually a chain of events that lead to their death. It's not something like "he was sick and suddenly died." That looks pretty on paper but life and death are more complex than that.

    • 1 year ago
  • jeffreyak
    • +1
      jeffreyak  

    • If he was in the wild he would more than likely have lived much longer. Had he not lived much longer then in the wild his life would without question been better. WTF!!!? Free these animals.

    • 1 year ago
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