American Family Association: Stone To Death Killer Whale Who Killed Trainer

The American Family Association, a religious right group, is urging that Tillikum (Tilly), the killer whale that killed a trainer at SeaWorld Orlando, be put down, preferably by stoning. Citing Tilly's history of violent altercations, the group is slamming SeaWorld for not listening to Scripture in how to deal with the animal:

Says the ancient civil code of Israel, "When an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner shall not be liable." (Exodus 21:28)

However, the group is going further and laying the blame for the trainer's death directly at the feet of Chuck Thompson, the curator in charge of animal behavior, because, according to Scripture,

But, the Scripture soberly warns, if one of your animals kills a second time because you didn't kill it after it claimed its first human victim, this time you die right along with your animal. To use the example from Exodus, if your ox kills a second time, "the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death." (Exodus 21:29)

SeaWorld has no plans to execute Tilly.

Quick Poll

What do you think should be done with Tilly?

He should be released to the wild or an animal sanctuary.

He should be kept at SeaWorld, just more precautions should be taken in the future.

He should be put down.

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Comments

[cipher1111]

08:13 PM on 03/20/2010

right wing religionists should be stoned to death for being stupid, archaic, and evil. Earth will be a better planet without them.
set the whale free, a magnificent beast has no business being trapped in an entertainment pool for humanoids. the whole thing is ridiculous, christians are ridiculous, the bible and other "holy" books are ridiculous. scriptures were written by men long dead and have nothing to do with what they are calling "god", a big white male in the sky.
idiots

[Louie69]

10:30 PM on 03/14/2010

And if Killa is bumping flippers with another male whale, the owner doesn't get a second chance.

[Dave Scofield]

01:17 PM on 03/12/2010

Fortunately, scripture is not the law of this land. And NO, our laws are NOT based on Christianity, so any of you religious crazies about to attack me for saying that can, respectfully, shove it.

[ddier]

01:28 AM on 03/09/2010

I can't believe so many of you believe everything you read! You should do like I did, and go directly to the source. If you look up the American Family Association's own website, you will find out what they said. It was nothing like what this post reported. They simply said they believed the whale should be euthanized. Period. Just as pit bulls are euthanized when they kill humans, so should the whale. That was their statement. Look it up, folks!

[Erica Anderson]

07:46 AM on 03/10/2010

Why is it always the animal whether orca or pit bulls that are punished for man's stupid ways and not man himself? The Sea World tragedy is fully mankind's fault because: A) they think they can domesticate wild animals like Orcas even if by breeding them in captivity and B) allowing Tilly with a violent history continue performing. Tilly was only acting on his instinct. He is an animal who was not meant to be man's plaything. If anything Tilly deserves to live in an animal sanctuary far away from mankind. Places like Sea World needs to be shut down ASAP for exploitation of wild animals and cruel and unusual punishment. I am sorry for Dawn's family and their loss but their daughter chose a risky profession to work with animals who are still WILD and carries the risk of maiming or killing humans. As long as man chooses to exploit orcas and other marine animals in the manner Sea world does, then man deserves the consequences of messing around with mother natures' children who do not belong in captivity and enslaved to mankind.

[HHUA]

12:29 AM on 03/11/2010

Regardless of whether or not they want tilly "stoned"... it is still ridiculous to blame this animal (or the many others) that winds up killing because of the greed and ignorance of humans!

Wild animals belong in the WILD... Not performing circus tricks to make places like Sea World rich and to entertain idiots!!!

The pool that these HUGE creatures live in isn't even as deep as the whale is long... How unbelievably sad for these animals.

[maryinbantry]

06:59 PM on 03/05/2010

Please be intelligent progressives and thoroughly check sources. This appears to include a bit of urban legend picked up by the media.

[pammiethekid]

08:26 AM on 03/08/2010

Can you site your source for that? American Family Association is the source of several outrageous claims that have become urban legends, but I can't find a single instance where they have been the victim.

[Bill Floyd zzz]

05:50 PM on 03/05/2010

I think what everyone hasnt noticed is its called a killer whale. they kill and eat,reproduce and Sh2t. People act today as if animals like this one hold some kind of secret clue about whatever . Fact is it is an animal, nothing else. They arent pets, they have nothing to teach us, they should be left alone in the wild. We as humans should do all that we can to ensure they have a clean enviroment to live in, just like us.

[Debbie338]

04:25 PM on 03/05/2010

It's really too bad that announcement won't make the "mainstream" news; it just demonstrates how frighteningly stupid the fundamentalists are who would impose Biblical law on this country.

[Dolphyn]

02:19 PM on 03/05/2010

I suppose these are the same people who describe themselves as "pro-life" ... *sigh*

[Maxiesid]

10:16 AM on 03/05/2010

I wonder if they thought this through. ... I mean, really, how many stones would you have to throw in order to actually even annoy a whale, let alone KILL it?

[MVeeh]

12:13 PM on 03/05/2010

1) remove whale from water
2) Use a backhoe to cover said whale with massive stones.
or
throw so many stones in the aquarium that it displaces all the water. Where there is a will, there is a way.

[SukiTheCat]

09:56 AM on 03/05/2010

OMG what absolute BS...I hate that people like this exist, it sickens me to be human

[oxford85]

09:10 AM on 03/05/2010

This tragedy is the result of humans trying to control wild animals for purposes of entertainment. It's no different than what Ringling Brothers does with its elephants. If you don’t like what’s happened here, boycott SeaWorld for enslaving these creatures against their natural ways.

As for this American Family Association, SeaWorld & Ringling Brothers should replace their orcas & elephants with these clowns, because their depth of stupidity is far more entertaining!

[booker52]

07:58 AM on 03/05/2010

If the whale could jump the pool and take on the audience this animal would be put down, but because he killed a trainer Sea World will not get rid of him. He is a money maker, so that should tell the victim's family how much she was worth in the scheme of things. Of course the trainer knew the dangers when she choose to do this job.

[Earthwhale]

02:16 AM on 03/05/2010

what the Whales would like you know:
.
We do not wish to be seen as harmful or feared. Our purpose is to protect humanity and to remind human matter to smile and love deep... Like any conscious being, we do not enjoy being exhibited, controlled or contained. We swim free to be with our pods, together we generate tremendous light energy that sustains human life by circling our earth and embracing the column of light that each human requires to thrive and love. Science will never control our destiny our living spirit matter cannot be trained, it's only an illusion that supports the human will to fear. Your man made fear will lead you to eternal darkness, begin to embrace the true love of all spirit matter and begin to smile and love and show caring grace to each other. No harm was meant to come to our friend, sometimes when we swim to close or to fast we loose control and loss occurs. This happens everyday in our sea. We don’t try to harm you like you have harmed us for centuries. This redundant action ignores spirit guidance, feeds ego and fear and leads toward destruction, because human matter just takes and does not return. Human matter fears death thus operates in Death Centered Action. If the love of life was greater than the fear of death were practiced daily, a huge change, shift would occur.

More communication mother whale go to www.earthwhale.blogspot.com

[Aliksa]

12:32 AM on 03/05/2010

WTF!!!! THese people are SICK!!!! Logic!?!??!? someone mentioned......no logic! They are just full of hate and vindictiveness. It boggles the mind.

[MVeeh]

07:28 PM on 03/04/2010

These people are in serious need of a television