#daniel dukes

July 6th

Today it is 18 years since a man was found dead in the back pool with Tilikum.

While anti-zoo books and films try to spin it as if Tilikum, the "deranged psychotic killer" aggressively ripped this man apart and "paraded him on his back as a trophy", the truth is likely something else entirely. I'm not a killer whale behavior expert and I never knew Tilikum myself, but I'm speculating based on people who did.

Daniel Dukes, a 27 year old man brought swimming trunks with him to SeaWorld, and stayed after hours to jump in the pool with a killer whale. In those days there wasn't as much security as today, so no one was watching the pool. The autopsy report reveals Mr. Dukes had no drugs in his system, so he wasn't "high" as some claim.

We will probably never know the reasons behind his actions, but it was unlikely to be suicide as killer whales weren't seen as "killers" back then, Tilikum's story wasn't well-known by the public, and Mr. Dukes couldn't possibly know this one whale was not trained for waterwork like the others. He probably thought he was going to swim with a killer whale as easily as the trainers in the show.

Tilikum's only exposure to humans in the pool had ended badly before. In Iceland, he was described as very sweet, but got angry once when he was to be separated from the other two whales, and pulled a trainer under and tore at his wetsuit. Not strange at all, he was an angry three year old and not a killer.

The next time - as he was never trained for waterwork, along with the other whales he lived with - a trainer fell in the small sea pen at Sealand of the Pacific. The three whales pulled her under until she drowned. But as the females were very dominant over Tilikum, who was a very submissive whale, it's unlikely he had a big part in her death.

Then eight years passed and he lived at SeaWorld, never with a trainer in the water unless separated by a gate. He had no reinforcement history with humans in the water, and had no idea how to act with them. What was a fun, rewarding and interactive creature on land simply became a flimsy, dangly object to him in the water. They don't look the same, they don't act the same in the water as on land.

So in jumps a man Tilikum has never seen before, in weird clothes he has never encountered before, and tries to interact with him. Daniel Dukes was not as severely injured as Dawn by any stretch, simply bruises and postmortem lacerations. The water in the killer whale pools is only 12 degrees celsius. It takes about an hour to die in that water temperature, far less to become stiff, immobile and get difficulty breathing from the cold.

The cause of death was drowning. Whether that was by inability to swim in the cold water or being dragged down by Tilikum, we will never know. But many of his injuries, including avulsion of his scrotum, happened after death. I've seen it described that in the morning when the scene was discovered, he was on the back of Tilikum, who was making distress calls. He could not understand why the human in his pool was not moving, and was very distressed. The anti-zoo activists call this "parading him around", "look at what I'm capable of". But think of cetacean behavior for a minute.

When a cetacean sees another animal in distress, they will push them to the surface to breathe. I've seen adult dolphins towing a dead baby dolphin on their backs in a desperate hope to get it to live. It is a very base instinct in these animals. There is no such thing as "parading a victim around on your back" in whale behavior. If Tilikum killed him on purpose, he would have been found at the bottom of the pool. And a quote by a friend, who’s done more research on this than me:

“So some scientists are hailing Tilikum as a hero for trying to save Dukes. Of course, being an orca, this would be a clumsy effort since the man is so much smaller than him, so he would have to use his teeth to maneuver the man, hence the injuries on Duke's body.“

Autopsy report

I don't wish to disrespect Mr. Dukes or his death. Tons of people have unfortunately already ridden on his death and three others (Keltie, Dawn and Alexis), in order to further their agenda, which in many cases, involves big money. What Mr. Dukes did was stupid and reckless, but he does not deserve to have his death being used in that way.

Tilikum is the most misrepresented whale that has ever lived. Keltie's death he likely had nothing to do with. Daniel he might have drowned, but most likely saw first as a toy and then displayed distress and was very upset that the man wasn't moving. Dawn he most definitely killed, violently, but this was most likely because of the alarm ringing, startling him to pull her in, and the more distressed and loud the people got over the situation, the more desperate Tilikum was to "keep Dawn safe", close to him. When her body was under a tarp and he was in the water again, he refused to leave her.

The trainers who worked with Tilikum described him as a “child in the body of a six ton whale” (anthropomorphic but to get the idea). How affectionate and fun-loving he was, much more so than most adult males. His behavior, throughout his last 26 years at SeaWorld, does not in any way match that of a deranged, psychotic serial killer, hating his life or hating his trainers. Not only that, it's ludicrous and anthropomorphic in the extreme.

Continuing the quote above:

Published by: Tim Zimmermann on Jan 08, 2013

Autopsy of Daniel Dukes, killed by Tilikum at SeaWorld Florida in 1999.

In 1999, a park guest named Daniel Dukes hid from security after hours in the Seaworld Orlando Park, and proceeded to jump into the the pool with Tilikum the Orca, where he was then found the next day draped over Tilikum's back, dead.

Tilikum had killed one trainer before this incident, and would go on to kill another some years later.

In what appears to be a sustained effort to mislead the public about these deaths at its parks, SeaWorld continues to claim that Dukes died of hypothermia although it is immediately clear from his autopsy report that this is false. Duke’s had numerous pre-mortem injuries consistent with Tilikum dragging him around the tank. Despite this forensic evidence, SeaWorld maintains that without witnesses it is impossible to determine if Tilikum was actively involved in Dukes’ death.

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SeaWorld spins the Daniel Dukes death as an unfortunate drowning. This is misinformation.

Note the wording in the Reuters article, "An autopsy scheduled for Wednesday was expected to show that he had drowned, as his body was unharmed." 

If you actually read the results from the Medical Examiners (ME) report Tilikum thoroughly worked DD over, with damage to all four extremities, the main body, and including a mild subarachnoid hemorrhage (bleeding in the brain), suggestive of Tilikum ragdolling the victim. Also note that there was no illegal drugs found in his body (see Toxicology report). 

The Orange County Sheriff's spokesman in 1999 was Jim Solomons, who was the same spokesperson that represented SeaWorld in 2010 at the first press conference after DB was killed (as seen in Blackfish). At this conference Solomons downplayed Dawn's death. He came out with SeaWorld management and reported that Dawn had "slipped and fell" into the pool. See photo. 

Regarding Dukes, Solomons says in the article, "He was camped out in the park and unfortunately decided to take a swim with the whale."

The details surrounding Daniel Dukes, the second human to be killed by a captive orca, are some of the most twisted I've ever seen depending on what side of the debate people stand. I find it interesting that despite his autopsy report being readily available, some people are still making up the details. Bolded are the common misconceptions, and the responses come direct from the autopsy which you can find here.

Misconception 1: Daniel Dukes was under the influence of drugs the night he jumped into the tank.

No drugs were detected in his system - each test came back negative.

Misconception 2: Tilikum only played with his body after he died, hardly any/none of his injuries occurred before he died of hypothermia.

Wrong. There is a distinction made between pre and post mortem injuries in the autopsy report. The following injuries were sustained prior to his death:

The following were sustained POST mortem:

Now while it may be seen that Tilikum's behavior escalated after Dukes died, he certainly didn't just sit in the corner and watch Dukes drown - while his official cause of death is hypothermia and drowning, the many many grazes (abrasions) and bruises (contusions) covering most of the body sustained prior to death suggest Tilikum was being quite aggressive with him, and certainly would not have helped him not to drown. There is potential (given what we know about Tilikum's tendencies during the aggressive incidents that HAVE been witnessed) that Tilikum prevented him from exiting the water. To say that Tilikum played a minor role in the death of this man is stretching it.

We've all heard this story before - a man somehow managed to stay behind after SeaWorld closed and snuck into the orca tanks.

We don't really know what happened next, but what we do know is that Dukes climbed into Tilikum's tank to take a swim, and was found naked and dead the next morning, draped over the orca's back.

I'm sure it's a moment SeaWorld would like to forget, but in the meantime they did everything they could to tarnish this man and blame him for his own death.

I'm sure, in this instance, that SeaWorld can hardly be blamed for this man's actions - but there are some incorrect and rather cruel accusations that have been floating around that I'd like to clear up.

Firstly, Daniel Dukes was not under the influence of drugs when he climbed into Tilly's tank.

According to his autopsy report, which you can read here, the toxicology report came back negative. No drugs were in his system at all.

Secondly, Dukes did not die of hypothermia, which is a common misconception that SeaWorld likes to throw around, and also a lot of pro-caps use this one too.

Lets make this clear folks - Dukes suffered multiple and severe injuries to his body before he died. If you read the list of injuries, the overwhelming majority of them were inflicted before Dukes was killed. The evidence convincingly states that Tilikum killed Daniel Dukes.

But what does this mean? I know a lot of people would argue that it doesn't really matter, but it does. SeaWorld has a nasty habit of trying to convince their guests that the orcas are friendly, loveable giants that will be more than happy to form a bond with humans. After all, their shows tout this message all the time. Their backstage videos even show this. They call orcas "kids" that just need a little training and discipline and attempt to lull everyone into a false sense of security - even the trainers themselves.