After its request to dismiss the OSHA case against it was rejected, SeaWorld called its first witness, Jenny Mairot, the supervisor of animal training at the Orlando park. Mairot started at SeaWorld a year after graduating from high school and has never received formal training as an animal behaviorist or trainer outside the organization. Despite being Dawn Brancheau's partner at the time of her death, Mairot testified cheerfully, laughing loudly and often during her testimony.

Mairot described Tilikum—the orca who killed Brancheau (and two others)—as "the most congenial, easygoing, and predictable" of the three adult male orcas she has worked with. She called Brancheau's death "tragic, but it was not unpredictable" and said that SeaWorld employees "were well aware of what would happen if someone fell into the pool with [Tilikum]."

OSHA's attorney stressed that SeaWorld turned a blind eye to safety and allowed its trainers to be in harm's way just for show by "writing incident reports, sending them around, and patting themselves on the back."

Mairot blamed trainer Alexis Martinez's death on "layers of mistakes" and said that when she watches video footage of the incident, "Keto [the whale who killed Martinez] wasn't even that bad." She stressed that the trainers at Loro Parque are "raw" and that the orcas are all young males. Mairot failed to note that Loro Parque staffers were trained by SeaWorld trainers and that the orcas were all provided for and placed in the facility by SeaWorld. SeaWorld Orlando trainers stopped water work for only a single day after Martinez's death, and no substantive changes were made to their protocols.

The next witness, Kelly Flaherty Clark, is the curator of animal training at SeaWorld Orlando. Flaherty Clark agreed with Mairot that the trainers were at fault for Martinez's death. Flaherty Clark lamented the fact that non-SeaWorld staffers were allowed to review incident reports since they don't understand "our craft." When asked who incident reports were meant for, Flaherty-Clark replied, "Certainly not a lawyer or the courtroom."

More to come.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

On day four of SeaWorld's appeal, Shana Groves, a SeaWorld senior trainer who was bitten on the thigh by an orca during a performance five years ago, testified that she had completed an incident report as required by the marine park and was surprised to learn that the attack was one of the many episodes left out of the corporate incident log that SeaWorld had provided to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

When she was bitten, Groves was in a position similar to that of Dawn Brancheau when she was attacked by Tilikum. Groves, who transferred out of Shamu Stadium to work with sea lions and otters after Brancheau's attack, broke down in tears when showed a photo of her and Tilikum.

Jan Topoleski, a former SeaWorld trainer who was acting as Brancheau's "spotter" at the time Brancheau was attacked, then recounted the circumstances surrounding Brancheau's death. Topoleski's testimony that Tilikum grabbed Brancheau by her ponytail was at odds with that of a SeaWorld security guard who had testified earlier that he watched Brancheau be pulled in the water by her arm. Topoleski conceded that he did not see Brancheau's hair in Tilikum's mouth or Brancheau pulled underwater by her hair. The supposed safety procedures that Topoleski followed were unable to free Brancheau from Tilikum's jaws. Like Groves, Toploleski stopped working with orcas shortly after the attack.

Fantaz | cc by 2.0

When the government called Dr. David Duffus, a professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, as an expert witness to discuss the predatory nature and inherent unpredictability of orcas, Duffus said that he was "at a loss" as to why Brancheau was permitted to lie in shallow water at Tilikum's side, holding his pectoral fin, knowing that he had a history of attacks. "Dealing with a large predatory animal and not expecting it to behave like a predator, I don't think that's wise," he said. Duffus questioned whether SeaWorld's allegations that trainer injuries were rare were a sufficient reason to permit trainers to be in close proximity with orcas, as even if it happens once in a million times, if that millionth time is a catastrophe, then it "goes beyond probability."

My verdict is in: Humans should not interact with orcas, and SeaWorld puts its trainers at risk by allowing them to have close contact with dangerous, unpredictable animals. But stay tuned to find out the outcome of the hearing.

Written by Heather Moore

Day three of SeaWorld's appeal brought out more skeletons from the marine park's closet. Attorneys for the government brought up incident after incident that were left out of SeaWorld's corporate incident log, including the attack leading to trainer Dawn Brancheau's death and attacks by an orca who had a penchant for grabbing trainers' ponytails. Chuck Tompkins, SeaWorld's corporate curator of zoological operations, eventually conceded that SeaWorld "may have missed a few" incidents.

Abi Skipp | cc by 2.0

The court watched graphic video footage from 2006, in which an orca named Kasatka (who had been involved in nine previous incidents) clamped down on trainer Ken Peters' foot and dragged him underwater at SeaWorld in San Diego. People in the courtroom gasped as they watched video of Kasatka as he yanked Peters around and held him underwater for minutes at a time. Peters repeatedly struggled to free himself from Kasatka's jaws and was finally able to calm the orca and escape with a broken foot. Tompkins conceded that no level of knowledge, experience, or skill would have enabled Peters to escape the attack unscathed: His only options were serious injury or death.

While Tompkins previously testified that there is no need to revise SeaWorld's animal training procedures because all injuries that occur are because of human error, he acknowledged on Wednesday that even the most senior trainers have made errors resulting in injuries and that, often, trainers were not to blame for the incidents. Tompkins continued to prove that SeaWorld management is delusional, claiming that they "have gotten a whole lot better" with the training process over time, despite, as attorneys for the government noted, the fact that two trainers were killed over a span of only two months in 2009 and 2010 and that the 2006 attack on Peters was nearly fatal.

Perhaps Tompkins' failure to acknowledge these dangers can be explained by the fact that neither he nor the other high-level managers of animal training at SeaWorld are formally trained in animal behavior, nor do they have any professional experience with orcas other that what they learned on the job at SeaWorld. In addition, the company has never called on an independent third party to review its incidents, protocols, or safety procedures.

Check back tomorrow for an update on Thursday's testimony.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

On day two of SeaWorld's appeal of the penalty leveled by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), senior trainer Lynne Schaber testified that trainers who work with orcas receive special instruction on Tilikum and a "Tilly Talk," in which they're informed of Tilikum's involvement with two previous deaths and that if they enter the water with him, they may not survive. Despite these concerns, trainers—including Dawn Brancheau, who was killed by Tilikum last year—were approved to work in close proximity with this angry orca and physically touch him at the water's edge. 

Schaber and Chuck Tompkins, SeaWorld's corporate curator for zoological operations for all SeaWorld parks, also testified that there are no specific steps for trainers to follow to respond to a life-threatening situation in the water and that their lives are ultimately up to their own "best judgment call." Tompkins admitted that the park does not even re-evaluate its protocols after an injury or death because it deems the injuries that occur "a result of human error" and insisted that revising safety protocols is unnecessary.

Finally, the government began questioning Tompkins at length about SeaWorld's corporate incident log, which contains reports of more than 100 incidents of orca aggression at its parks, often resulting in injuries to humans and causing one death by extensive internal bleeding.

Stay tuned.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor