"In a decision that could reshape the theme park's world-famous whale shows, Welsch, an administrative law judge for the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, mostly upheld the safety citations issued against SeaWorld following the tragic death of a whale trainer in Orlando, Fla., in 2010.

The judge also affirmed an OSHA recommendation to which SeaWorld officials had strongly objected: that trainers be separated from killer whales by a physical barrier if the two are near each other in the water. It's a change that will likely alter the whale-trainer dynamic during performances. "
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/30/s..._n_1557597.html

That's a decision that is going to have wide impact, I believe. Workplace safety and insurance issues will hopefully mean that these grotesque shows become less popular

Nice.

"There's plenty of evidence showing that SeaWorld should have known that putting its trainers in the water with the giant orcas was dangerous. Four deaths and more than 100 incident reports of aggressive or atypical behavior by the whales support that and the ruling, perhaps because Judge Ken Welsch had such unforgiving words for SeaWorld management, has gator wrestlers, tiger trainers and elephant handlers worried they could be next.

"We're all a bit concerned," said Grey Stafford, director of conservation for Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium in Phoenix. "Are we going to have to put cages around [horse] jockeys so they don't have contact with a 1,000-pound animal that could hurt them?"

For that to make sense, you would have to show that those organizations are putting their workers in the same kind of danger that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration argued SeaWorld took with its trainers."
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-0...um-killer-whale

FROM IDA:
At least 14 human deaths and more than 135 injuries have been attributed to elephants over the last 22 years in the U.S., with the majority occurring in circuses. By comparison, four people have been killed by captive orcas and dozens injured throughout the 47 years that the species has been on public display worldwide.

https://secure2.convio.net/ida/site/Advocac...xlxuwlm1.app246