Trainer Error Caused Whale Attack, Mentor Says

Feb. 26, 2010— -- A mistake by trainer Dawn Brancheau prompted a killer whale to drag her into the water to her death, a former mentor of Brancheau's said today.

"Dawn, if she was standing here with me, would tell you that it was her mistake that it happened," Thad Lacinak, former head trainer at SeaWorld and Brancheau's teacher, told "Good Morning America." "Dawn was one of the best killer whale trainers I've ever worked with. ... It looks like she made the mistake."

Lacinak said Brancheau was apparently lying down in a 4-inch "slide out" that trainers are meant to stand on while interacting with the whale when her ponytail drifted toward the mouth of the 12,000-pound animal.

"He pulled her in by the ponytail," Lacinak said. "I'm pretty sure it was her breaking protocol. ... Sometimes we get too comfortable working with these animals. Sometimes we forget what they are."

Brancheau, 40, an experienced trainer, was snatched by the whale in front of a stadium of horrified onlookers, thrashed and ultimately held under water to drown Wednesday.

Although this is the third dead person linked to the whale named Tillikum, and two federal agencies are investigating Brancheau's death, SeaWorld officials said they had no plans to euthanize the animal.

SeaWorld has for years banned trainers from swimming with Tillikum, who was linked to the death of a Canadian trainer in 1991 and another man who sneaked into a holding area in 1999. The whale has, however, been used in public shows and is given commands from trainers from the sides of the tank.

Although captive land mammals, including tigers and chimpanzees, are routinely killed on sight or later euthanized if they attack people, SeaWorld said it had never killed an animal for displaying aggressive behavior.

"Euthanasia is different in a veterinary setting, but we have never euthanized an animal for being aggressive," SeaWorld spokeswoman Leigh Andrus said Thursday.

"The plan is to review our protocols and continue to care for Tillikum with the same high level of care. Trainers will interact with the animal to provide care, but this was never an animal which trainers swam with."

Given the whale's checkered history and the animal's natural predatory tendencies, a debate has emerged about what should be done with the whale.

Brancheau's family and animal rights activists say they do not want to see Tillikum killed.

Brancheau's sister, Diane Gross, told the Associated Press that the trainer loved the animals like they were her children and "would not want anything done to that whale."

Activists at PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who oppose the captivity of all wild animals said the park should release the whale to a coastal sanctuary that would allow the animal to swim in the ocean in a controlled setting.