Our thoughts go out to the family and friends of the Sea World trainer, Dawn Brancheau, who died following an incident with one of the killer whales.

It appears that the whale grabbed her from the roll off area and began thrashing around and dragging her underwater. This followed a training session with the whale and was massaging Tilikum, a 12,000-pound whale when her ponytail fell onto the whale's nose Wednesday afternoon. That's when Tilikum suddenly grabbed her hair and dragged his trainer into the water where she drowned.

Tilikum, has killed twice before. The first time was when he was involved with another whale in the death of a trainer in a Canadian water park. The second time was when a man hid when the park was closing and entered the whale enclosure when no one was around.

I think that it is time to withdraw the whale from shows and interaction with trainers as it is clear that he can become distressed easily. I would hate to see this animal destroyed just as I am sure that Dawn Brancheau would not want that either.