Dawn Brancheau

Dawn Therese Brancheau ( LoVerde; April 16, 1969 – February 24, 2010) was an American animal trainer at SeaWorld. and Daniel P. Dukes.

Life and career Brancheau was born Dawn Therese LoVerde in Cedar Lake, Indiana, and was the youngest of six children. and kept various stray ducks, chickens, rabbits, and small birds at her home. Additionally, at least a dozen patrons witnessed Brancheau in the water with Tilikum. The orca's moves seem to have been very quick as he pulled her underwater and drowned her.

Aftermath Safety No SeaWorld trainer would ever again enter a pool to perform a show with an orca following Brancheau's death. Brancheau was the third fatality associated with Tilikum an OSHA investigation in 2007 concluded that, "The continuing factors to the incident, in the simplest of terms, is that swimming with captive orcas is inherently dangerous, and if someone hasn't been killed already, it is only a matter of time before it does happen." SeaWorld successfully challenged the report, which OSHA agreed to withdraw. Four SeaWorld orcas had been transferred to the park in February 2006, and SeaWorld staff trained a group of Loro Parque trainers in San Antonio and Orlando. OSHA maintained that SeaWorld "willfully" endangered its employees and stated that the company "(shows) plain indifference to, or intentional disregard for, employee safety and health." SeaWorld issued a statement that called OSHA's findings "unfounded". SeaWorld challenged the OSHA fine and the safety report in legal proceedings, stating that "OSHA's allegations in this citation are unsupported by any evidence or precedent and reflect a fundamental lack of understanding of the safety requirements associated with marine mammal care." At a preliminary hearing in 2011, one of these citations was withdrawn by OSHA. Welsch was sharply critical of SeaWorld's assertion that it was unaware that working with orcas posed a hazard to employees. Welsch stated it is "implausible" and "difficult to reconcile" with comments repeatedly made by management and with the litany of trainer incidents and injuries that have occurred over the years. However, Welsch did agree that the fine classification was too severe and had it downgraded – from "willful" (total of $75,000 for the 2 citations) to "serious" (total of $12,000) – stating that the company had emphasized trainer safety despite the safety procedures being ineffective. Given the court rulings, even after 2010, although water work during shows stopped, SeaWorld trainers still entered the water with orcas during "safety desensitization training" and for other care. In 2015, SeaWorld was cited again, in San Diego, for not adequately protecting orca trainers. which criticizes keeping orcas in captivity, The documentary's director, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, argued that the claim that Tilikum had targeted Brancheau because she had worn her hair in a ponytail was conjecture and that "there had to be more to this story". In addition to the impact of OSHA-imposed safety-based abatements of previous work practices to prevent future incidents, Cowperthwaite began working on Blackfish in 2010 following Dawn's death, initially having questions about SeaWorld's "ponytail hypothesis".

After its release in 2013, the film awakened a national dialogue about the issue. SeaWorld transitioned to being a publicly traded company in 2013.

Lawmakers in California and the US House of Representatives proposed legislation to phase out orca captivity, and the California Coastal Commission moved in 2015 to ban orca breeding. The law was partly a response to the circumstances of Brancheau's death. The confidentiality considerations turn on issues that resemble those in the case of the murder of Meredith Emerson in Georgia; the laws that Georgia and Florida enacted in response to these situations are similar. The foundation is "dedicated to improving the lives of children and animals in need, inspiring others to follow their dreams, and promoting the importance of community service".