I used to work for the company, and here's my observations on all things Blackfish:

1. Dawn was the best of the best. If there was a Top Gun of animal trainers, she'd be Viper. I didn't really meet her more than in passing, but she was highly regarded by all the trainers (she was a friend of a friend, so to speak).
2. Dawn got careless and made a mistake. She was waving her braided ponytail around and Tilikum (Tilly) thought it was a toy. Environmental enrichment (EE, also the sound they make, lol) is a term for providing toys that the dolphins and whales play with so they don't get bored or lethargic. Usually it's things like ropes with buoys attached, rings, balls, giant ice blocks, hunks of Jello, etc. A braid looks an awful lot like a twisted rope, and I think Tilly was like "holy shit, a toy, yes!" Dawn just happened to be connected to that toy.
3. Once Tilly took her down, there isn't much that could have been done. They've since installed a grate in some of the pools that acts like a strainer and raises from the floor of the pool, to prevent future drownings from happening. Sidebar: Dawn had very little chance for other reasons that are probably too gruesome to discuss here.
4. Tilly was an exception, as a wild-born animal. Most of the whales and dolphins in the parks were born there, or at another sister park around the world (animals are frequently traded and moved around for genetic diversity). In many instances, animals that are reintroduced to the wild don't survive. Think about it this way: if you're born in a park, you've never seen a live fish, so you've never had to hunt one. You don't know how to properly defend from predators, you don't have a family pod, and you are often seen as a threat to other pods. The only successful alternatives are sea pens, but those aren't really the open ocean and don't really solve the problem that the activists want to solve. There's no good answer.
5. For weeks after the incident, Jan Pettifor (aka "Shoebag" or "Shoebagga" in car circles) and her merry band of PETA fucktards decided that throwing objects (eggs and discarded food mainly) at cars entering or exiting the employee lot was a great idea. She's the Brit-iot that drives the Lamborghini and Viper with the anti-captivity slogans who has nothing else better to do with her life than orbit up and down Central Florida Parkway. You'd think that she'd care about the environment enough to drive something that got better gas mileage, but you know, liberals are pretty much defined by condescending hypocrisy. I got off fairly easy I suppose, they'd only slap my windows and hurl obscenities at me.
6. The real tragedy in all this is that the whales and dolphins were actually treated better than the employees. Their health plan was better, even. Jokes aside, I really wish someone would explore the degrading level of abuse that theme park employees have to deal with on a regular basis. The company is not without sin. We got shit pay but that's pretty standard for all theme park workers...I could probably have worked retail or flipped burgers for more. There were also some massive failures in their policies and safety procedures, but that's a story for another day. All I'll say now is that everything changed the moment that InBev signed the paper to buy out Anheuser (A-B treated us very well though and Auggie III was a great person even though he retired by the time I got there; Auggie IV was pretty much an asshole). The level of cost-cutting and general lack of "give a shit" led me to bail a few years later.
7. The motives behind Blackfish were very opportunistic:

a. Blackfish was produced by Magnolia Pictures

b. Magnolia Pictures is a subsidiary of 2929 Entertainment.

c. 2929 Entertainment also owns Landmark Theatres, a chain geared towards first-run independent films (perfect premiere venues for a film like Blackfish)

d. All of these companies are owned by who? Mark Cuban.

e. Why does Mark Cuban care about SeaWorld? Is he an activist?

f. No, but he is heavily tied to/invested in ABC because of his then-new show Shark Tank. And they can provide cover and a fallback plan if he lost his SEC case in the courts (he ended up being acquitted of insider trading).

g. Who owns ABC?

h. All roads lead to the evil mouse. Always. Always. Always.

i. Tourism had fallen from 2007's highs due to the Recession from 2008-2012. What's a really good way to pump up your tourism numbers in the cutthroat tourism markets of Central Florida and California? Destroy a rival.

j. To conclude, Mark Cuban was showing his own funded movies at his own theaters, generating Oscar buzz through his media entities, while playing a role in his "employer's" overarching bid to destroy a rival theme park company through bad publicity that they themselves generate through their news division (ABC).

I know it seems like Q-level shit but it seemed so obvious to me at the time, because the economy was already in the toilet, and there was no end in sight. Everyone in the industry was desperate, and when the incident happened, it really felt like kicking us while we're down.

I'm just really glad I'm out of there. I miss my coworkers and the day-to-day job was pretty laid-back most of the time (pre-InBev) but man it's exhausting to even recount all of that.

I used to work for the company, and here's my observations on all things Blackfish:

1. Dawn was the best of the best. If there was a Top Gun of animal trainers, she'd be Viper. I didn't really meet her more than in passing, but she was highly regarded by all the trainers (she was a friend of a friend, so to speak).
2. Dawn got careless and made a mistake. She was waving her braided ponytail around and Tilikum (Tilly) thought it was a toy. Environmental enrichment (EE, also the sound they make, lol) is a term for providing toys that the dolphins and whales play with so they don't get bored or lethargic. Usually it's things like ropes with buoys attached, rings, balls, giant ice blocks, hunks of Jello, etc. A braid looks an awful lot like a twisted rope, and I think Tilly was like "holy shit, a toy, yes!" Dawn just happened to be connected to that toy.
3. Once Tilly took her down, there isn't much that could have been done. They've since installed a grate in some of the pools that acts like a strainer and raises from the floor of the pool, to prevent future drownings from happening. Sidebar: Dawn had very little chance for other reasons that are probably too gruesome to discuss here.
4. Tilly was an exception, as a wild-born animal. Most of the whales and dolphins in the parks were born there, or at another sister park around the world (animals are frequently traded and moved around for genetic diversity). In many instances, animals that are reintroduced to the wild don't survive. Think about it this way: if you're born in a park, you've never seen a live fish, so you've never had to hunt one. You don't know how to properly defend from predators, you don't have a family pod, and you are often seen as a threat to other pods. The only successful alternatives are sea pens, but those aren't really the open ocean and don't really solve the problem that the activists want to solve. There's no good answer.
5. For weeks after the incident, Jan Pettifor (aka "Shoebag" or "Shoebagga" in car circles) and her merry band of PETA fucktards decided that throwing objects (eggs and discarded food mainly) at cars entering or exiting the employee lot was a great idea. She's the Brit-iot that drives the Lamborghini and Viper with the anti-captivity slogans who has nothing else better to do with her life than orbit up and down Central Florida Parkway. You'd think that she'd care about the environment enough to drive something that got better gas mileage, but you know, liberals are pretty much defined by condescending hypocrisy. I got off fairly easy I suppose, they'd only slap my windows and hurl obscenities at me.
6. The real tragedy in all this is that the whales and dolphins were actually treated better than the employees. Their health plan was better, even. Jokes aside, I really wish someone would explore the degrading level of abuse that theme park employees have to deal with on a regular basis. The company is not without sin. We got shit pay but that's pretty standard for all theme park workers...I could probably have worked retail or flipped burgers for more. There were also some massive failures in their policies and safety procedures, but that's a story for another day. All I'll say now is that everything changed the moment that InBev signed the paper to buy out Anheuser (A-B treated us very well though and Auggie III was a great person even though he retired by the time I got there; Auggie IV was pretty much an asshole). The level of cost-cutting and general lack of "give a shit" led me to bail a few years later.
7. The motives behind Blackfish were very opportunistic: a. Blackfish was produced by Magnolia Pictures b. Magnolia Pictures is a subsidiary of 2929 Entertainment. c. 2929 Entertainment also owns Landmark Theatres, a chain geared towards first-run independent films (perfect premiere venues for a film like Blackfish) d. All of these companies are owned by who? Mark Cuban. e. Why does Mark Cuban care about SeaWorld? Is he an activist? f. No, but he is heavily tied to/invested in ABC because of his then-new show Shark Tank. And they can provide cover and a fallback plan if he lost his SEC case in the courts (he ended up being acquitted of insider trading). g. Who owns ABC?
   h. All roads lead to the evil mouse. Always. Always. Always. i. Tourism had fallen from 2007's highs due to the Recession from 2008-2012. What's a really good way to pump up your tourism numbers in the cutthroat tourism markets of Central Florida and California? Destroy a rival. j. To conclude, Mark Cuban was showing his own funded movies at his own theaters, generating Oscar buzz through his media entities, while playing a role in his "employer's" overarching bid to destroy a rival theme park company through bad publicity that they themselves generate through their news division (ABC).

I know it seems like Q-level shit but it seemed so obvious to me at the time, because the economy was already in the toilet, and there was no end in sight. Everyone in the industry was desperate, and when the incident happened, it really felt like kicking us while we're down.

I'm just really glad I'm out of there. I miss my coworkers and the day-to-day job was pretty laid-back most of the time (pre-InBev) but man it's exhausting to even recount all of that.