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All i can say is that tilikum is a good animal and dawn was a great trainer. and i want to point out we are watching video of you with killer whales when you were still working with them. paula, turning back to you. earlier when we spoke to you, you wanted to clarify that this incident took place after the show and you really didn t see anything strange during the show or immediately afterwards, because someone in randi kaye s piece just now said that there was some weird signals before. you didn t see anything that seemed unusual? no. and she walked around the entire area and would have him come up on the rocks that are around the edge where we re sitting. and at one point, they were right in front of us. if i leaned over, i could have touched her and she would have him come up out of the water on his fins and make noises and catch fish and ice and he seemed perfectly fine. that s dawn, the trainer, that we are looking at. i just want to point that out. sorry. go on. ....
Everything seemed calm and okay and the trainer was laying down on him and kissing his nose and rubbing him. you could see her hand in the water rubbing him. and the next thing, i mean it all happened so fast. within five minutes, she was down in the tank and we saw the thrashing and the bubbles and him pushing her with his nose and it was just so, so traumatic. and all the people around and of course, my daughter and, she saw it. and i tried to shelter her eyes from it but it was too late. and that s when all the sirens went off and they told us to please, you know, exit the building and head up to the main streets of the seaworld attraction and they just started shutting down everything. and you saw describing this as a scene where nothing but the trainer s shoe was left? no, i didn t see any of that. you didn t see that? we were underneath the tank cause we left from the dining area, which was right above. and during the show, everything seemed perfectly fine. he was play ....
To you one way and in this case, it is to pull nut water. reporter: no matter what tilikum has done, the orca network believes seaworld will keep him. as the primary breeding male for all seaworld parks, he is worth millions. at a time whales are dying faster than they are being born, tilikum is seaworld s future. randi kaye, cnn, new york. joining us now are paula gillespie. she was there at the park with her family and watching the show with her young daughter when this happened. on the phone, jeffrey ventri. he worked with tilikum. he is now out of the profession. paula, let s start with you. you were there, you were an eyewitness to this. it sounds terrifying. would you describe exactly what happened? happened? happened? happened? we just left the dine with shamu show and went to look at his full body in the observation tank.shamu show and went to loo his full body in the observation tank. ....
and she was very interactive with him and he was with her and she reinforced their affection and give him kisses on the nose. boy. i mean, when the show ended, it was seemed perfectly fine. all right. jeffrey, do you have a theory why seaworld still has this animal, tilikum, in the tank, despite all these past instances? sure. he has sired, i believe, 13 offspring, ten of which i think are still alive, and he is a great breeder and he is a beautiful animal. so, in other words, he s male breeder. they actually essentially use him to breed new animals and they need him on their team? is that what you are saying? well, he provides semen to impregnate females. he s beautiful animal. he is huge. he is impressive. and people just see him and go, wow. and, you know, he is he is a money stream as well as a great animal. jeffrey ventri, paula gillespie. paula, sorry for what you witnessed today and thanks to both of you for joining us this ....
The eyewitness says when the trainer, who was not in the water, gave the go-ahead, the whale took off. just took off really fast and then he came back around to the glass, jumped up and grabbed the trainer by the waist and started shaking her violently and her shoe the last thing we saw was her shoe floating and finally immediately started. reporter: the crowd that gathered for the show was cleared out. the park manager at seaworld says the trainer drowned. an expert with the orca network who studies whales tells cnn that tilikum has been known to be aggressive and doesn t generally swim with other trainers. tilikum s role in the show is to simply splash the audience, using his massive tail. the whale s lack of companionship may have triggered this attack. you put a highly social mammal like an orca into captivity for long periods, they have nothing, they have no stimulation. they have no companionship. and that can tend to create ....