Video shows killer whale 'rag dolling' trainer before letting him live
Dominic Smithers
Featured Image Credit: ABC News
Killer whales are just about as terrifying a predator as there is in the world.
So you either have to be incredibly brave or touch silly to jump into a pool and swim with them for a living.
If you needed any convincing about that fact, a horrific video is doing the rounds online that shows the moment a trainer is dragged underwater by an orca and almost drowned.
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Ken Peters was working at SeaWorld in San Diego back in 2006 when one of the animals, named Kasatka, grabbed hold of him.
In the video, Ken is quickly taken under by the powerful animal, dragged all the way to the bottom of the pool, as a horrified crowd watch on.
Helpless, he just goes along for the ride, holding his breath for over a minute until the whale brings him back up to the surface.
Kasatka gives Ken a few seconds to catch his breath and then pulls him back down once again, repeating it several times.
Luckily, he eventually manages to escape her grips, patting her on her side and stroking her as he moves slowly away before swimming over to the side and being pulled out of the water by his colleagues.
Speaking at a federal hearing after the incident, Ken said he accepted the dangers that came with swimming with such a dangerous animal
"I could get killed in a car accident today, but I still get in a car," he said.
"Even when I was down at the bottom of the pool, I thought she’d let me go."
Footage of Ken's ordeal was first shown in the 2013 award-winning documentary Blackfish.
Kasatka was put down in 2017, at the age of 41.
The animal's former trainer, John Hargrove, who left the SeaWorld in 2012, claimed her death was caused by bacterial infections.
Hargrove claims that the animals' immune systems are badly affected by the antibiotics they are given so that they can live in the parks' pools.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, he said: "They claim captive orcas help educate people, and for years I bought into it. But Kasatka lived in misery, in barbaric and horrific conditions, and died in agony.
"She lived out her days in a house of horrors – and I was complicit in selling the lie to the public."
Adding: "In the wild, these magnificent creatures live to 80, 100 years old.
"I have to speak out because if it stops just one person paying to go to a park where orcas are tortured to perform circus tricks, then Kasatka's death won't have been in vain."
UNILAD has contacted SeaWorld for a comment.