Has a dolphin ever killed its trainer? and where?

Question

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Answer 1

If any dolphin had ever killed any trainer anywhere in the world, I'm sure we'd all have heard about it by now.  

I know of one trainer from Texas who thought the dolphins he was working with were trying to drown him.  He thought dolphins were little different than other dumb animals he had worked with, and what he got was the dumbest bunch of dolphins ever assembled.  Those dolphins couldn't do anything right, and just about everything they attempted either drenched him or "accidentally" knocked him into the pool.  The regular trainers got the best laugh they'd had in years, and one of them said that the dolphins had to be positively brilliant to be that dumb.

Aggressive behavior toward trainers has been reported with killer whales (Orcinas orca), short-finned pilot whales (Globicephela macrorhynchus) and bottle nose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), but only in response to stupidity or gross insensitivity on the part of the trainer.

The reason dolphins are so fearless around us is probably the knowledge that all they have to do is point at us and whistle very loudly in a certain way, and they can kill us in a heartbeat and from a distance.  It's the same fearlessness you feel when you venture into the woods armed with a shotgun and for exactly the same reason.

Answer 2

A shark once killed its trainer.

Gobbled him up.

Answer 3

I assume you are talking about Bottle Nosed Dolphins, I couldn't find anything about them kill their trainers, but it's possible.

Orcas, the largest species of the oceanic dolphin family, have killed their trainers before.

Most animal trainers have to go through a period of time to get to know the animal (and the animal to know the new trainer), how to train/give commands, etc.

You wouldn't just jump in an animal's exhibit at a zoo without working with and getting to know the animal personally. It's a wild animal and can easily kill you. Same with marine animals, they're still wild animals. They have their own personalities, they protect their territory, will try to assert their dominance, they have their good and bad days, they can easily kill a human, etc.

Even with training and apprenticeships, accidents happen.

http://www.seaworld.org/career-resources...

Due to the specialized nature of the work, an on-the-job apprenticeship is necessary. Even if an individual has had previous experience training animals, he or she must go through a period of time during which he or she becomes familiar with the individual animals' personalities and training methods used before he or she interacts directly with them.

http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info...

APPRENTICESHIP

1. An on-the-job apprenticeship is required of each new trainer. The apprenticeship period may last a year or more, even if new trainers have had animal training experience somewhere else. During their apprenticeship, new trainers learn animal training methods, and become familiar with the animals, their personalities, feeding, and care.

  

2. SeaWorld trainers may be apprentices for four years before doing waterwork segments with killer whales. Over time, apprentice trainers may become associate trainers, trainers, and senior trainers. Senior trainers perform in many park shows and help train apprentice trainers.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/dolphins/...

There are instances of dolphins actually killing people." In Brazil, for instance, an aggressive male dolphin head-butted an overly friendly swimmer, killing him.

http://dolphins.jump-gate.com/differnt_d...

There have been incidents with orcas in captivity attacking humans. In 1991, a group of orcas killed a trainer named Keltie Byrne at Sealand in Victoria, British Columbia (where employees were not allowed in the water with orcas), apparently not knowing she could not survive underwater. In 1999, at the SeaWorld park in Orlando, Florida, one of the same orcas allegedly killed a tourist who had sneaked into the orca's pool at night[1] (http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/06/killer.wha... (The tourist was also thought to be a victim of hypothermia.) In late July 2004, during a show at the SeaWorld park in San Antonio, Texas, an orca pushed its trainer of ten years underwater and barred the way to the rim of the pool; the trainer could only be rescued from the raging animal after several minutes.

One of the more infamous incidents involving orca aggression took place in August 1989, when, during a live show, one female whale, Kandu V (who had established herself as the dominant female) struck another whale, Corky II, imported from Marineworld California just months prior to the incident. According to reports, a loud smack was heard across the stadium. Although trainers tried to keep the show rolling, the blow severed an artery near Kandu V's jaw, and she began spouting blood. The crowd was quickly ushered out, and after a 45-minute hemorrhage, Kandu V died. Opponents of these shows see these incidents as supporting their criticism.

http://worldanimalfoundation.homestead.c...

Captive animals are not the only victims o f these "circuses of the sea." Sea World patrons were stunned when two orcas repeatedly

dragged trainer Jonathan Smith to the bottom of their tank, in an apparent attempt to drown him.(21) Trainer Keltie Lee Byrne was

killed by three Sea Land orcas after she fell into the water with them.(22)