I am no expert

After being at Sea World this week I was a little surprised to read that one of the killer whales (actually it was the jumping whale that I posted a picture of in my last post), "attacked" a trainer during a show. All the articles that I have seen about the event use the word "attack" many times, I even saw one called 'Revenge of Shamu'. Now I am no expert on orcas but I don't think that what the whale did to the trainer can be called an attack. She pulled him down and held him in the water with his foot in her mouth, & she swam around the tank with the trainer's foot still in her mouth, but she did release him. The trainer was taken to the hospital and had a broken foot. If this was an attack I think there would have been something more dramatic. Not to say that being pulled under the water by a whale isn't dramatic, but an attack...I am not sure. I saw a video of the alleged attack and the guy videoing the show didn't even know what was happening. He said, "I think the whale is being stubborn." A startling event, yes; a reminder that orcas are wild animals and not tame pets, yes; an attack..I think no.