SeaWorld trainer survives killer whale attack in extraordinary footage
Extraordinary footage shows the moment a SeaWorld trainer survived a killer whale attack.
In November 2006, former SeaWorld trainer Ken Peters had a brush with death in the jaws of one of the park’s orcas, Kasatka.
And you can watch the horrifying footage of this terrifying moment here:
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Peters had entered the water for a routine with Kasatka, but things went very, very wrong.
Not long after the then 39-year-old entered the water with the whale, the plan didn’t exactly pan out.
Kasatka was supposed to lift the trainer up out of the water with her nose but instead grabbed his foot and dragged the man down to the bottom of the pool.
Every now and again, the orca would swim back up to the surface while Peters would desperately try to gulp in air before being dragged back down again.
Extraordinarily, Peters survived the encounter and scraped away with only a broken foot. And that injury only happened after slipping his limb from Kasatka’s jaws and swimming as fast as he could back to his co-workers, who hauled him from the pool.
Speaking after his near-death experience, Peters said: “I could get killed in a car accident today, but I still get in a car. Even when I was down at the bottom of the pool, I thought she’d let me go."
The footage of Kasatka - who weighed 5,000 pounds - dragging Peters to the bottom of her tank first aired in Blackfish, the 2013 documentary about the horrible toll captivity has on orcas.
In 2017, it was announced that Kasatka was put down at the age of 41 after battling lung disease.
After Kasatka died, her former trainer John Hargrove hit out at SeaWorld, alleging that the mammal died of bacterial infections because her immune system was impaired by years of antibiotic taking.
He told MailOnline: “By the end she had lesions on her face, like an Aids patient. SeaWorld will never release the autopsy but the internal wounds will be far worse.”
Hargrove added: “I have to speak out because if it stops just one person paying to go to a park where orcas are tortured to perform circus tricks, then Kasatka's death won't have been in vain.”
Hargrove also admitted he once ‘bought into SeaWorld’s lies’, telling the paper: “They claim captive orcas help educate people, and for years I bought into it. But Kasatka lived in misery, in barbaric and horrific conditions, and died in agony.
“She lived out her days in a house of horrors – and I was complicit in selling the lie to the public.”
LADbible has previously approached SeaWorld for comment.
Topics: Animals
Jess Battison