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Alexis Martinez, a Spanish animal trainer, worked with orcas at Loro Parque’s Orca Ocean in the Canary Islands. He was murdered on December 24, 2009, during a Christmas performance practice, two months before Dawn Brancheau, SeaWorld’s most well-known orca attack victim. Although the park first referred to Martinez’s death as an accident, the autopsy report revealed that he died as a result of lethal injuries sustained during the assault. To make things worse, two years ago, the park claimed another orca assault was an accident.
Alexis Martinez & Keto
Alexis Martinez, 29, spent three years working with orcas at Loro Parque. Estefanía Luis Rodriguez, the animal lover’s girlfriend, characterized him as “handsome, generous, and funny”. She reported that Martinez raised worries about his job at Orca Ocean. Just weeks before his death, he said that the killer whales were becoming unruly, disruptive, and hostile. Initially, the park described his death as an unfortunate accident, claiming that his corpse exhibited no signs of violence until the postmortem report revealed shredded organs, a crushed chest, and bite marks.
Keto, a 6,600-pound male hatched in captivity in 1995 at a SeaWorld facility, has never seen the ocean. He has performed in parks throughout Ohio, Texas, San Diego, and the Canary Islands. The event occurred in his third year at Loro Parque’s Orca Ocean. Loro Parque received four orcas on loan from SeaWorld, including Keto.,
Martinez’s knowledge allowed him to play an important part in training the animals for the impending Christmas display. One of the feats was a stand-on spy hop, in which the trainer perched on the killer whale as it climbed out of the water. However, the ruse did not work as anticipated since Martinez slipped into the water as Keto leaned to one side. Martinez responded neutrally and offered no incentive in accordance with instruction. Soon later, the orca received fish as a reward for working with another trainer.
Martinez returned to work with Keto and attempted a maneuver where he rode the orca into the pool before sliding up onto the stage. However, Keto dived too deeply, forcing Martinez to swim back alone. However, it seemed like the orca was obstructing his trainer’s passage to the stage.
Martinez was told to swim gently to a different pool while a coworker distracted Keto. However, Keto went directly for Martinez, crashing into him, pushing him underwater, and brutally playing with his body. Other trainers eventually called Keto into a separate pool to collect Martinez, who had died from his injuries. Tragically, he died only a few months before Dawn Brancheau’s tragic assault at SeaWorld.
Claudia Vollhardt, a 29-year-old German orca trainer, was hospitalized in 2007 after an assault by Tekoa, the killer whale. Vollhardt was working at Loro Parque’s Orca Ocean, practicing a maneuver with Tekoa in which the orca pressed her feet with its nose while swimming together. Instead, Tekoa crashed at the lady from under, grabbing her arm in her teeth and pulling her underwater several times before releasing her. At the time, a Loro Parque spokesperson described the occurrence as an accident since “the whale did not bite her.” If it did, she would have lost one arm.”
Since the publication of the documentary Blackfish in 2013, marine parks have under increasing public attention. Orcas in captivity have greater death rates than their wild counterparts. They are separated from their families, who would ordinarily be united for life. They are also restricted to a tank rather than moving long distances over the ocean. The Whale Sanctuary Project is an organization dedicated to creating enormous seashore sanctuaries where rescued cetaceans like Keto may experience freedom for the first time while still getting human care.
