page_title: Dawn Brancheau
section_title: Life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Dawn Brancheau / Life and career
caption_attribution_description: English: Orca trainer Dawn Brancheau with killer whale Katina in SeaWorld Orlando.
context_page_description: Dawn Therese Brancheau was an American senior animal trainer at SeaWorld. She worked with orcas at SeaWorld Orlando for fifteen years, including a leading role in revamping the Shamu show, and was SeaWorld's poster girl. She was killed by an orca, Tilikum, becoming one of two SeaWorld trainers to be killed by an animal, along with another in Loro Parque in Spain.
context_section_description: Brancheau was born Dawn Therese LoVerde in Cedar Lake, Indiana and was the youngest of six children. She set her heart on becoming a Shamu trainer during a family vacation to Orlando. She graduated from the University of South Carolina with degrees in psychology and animal behavior. Away from work, she volunteered at a local animal shelter, looked after two chocolate Labradors, and kept a variety of stray ducks, chickens, rabbits, and small birds at her home.
  Brancheau spent two years working with dolphins at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey before beginning her career at SeaWorld Orlando in 1994, initially working with otters and sea lions. In 1996, the same year she married Scott Brancheau, a SeaWorld stunt water skier, she started working with orcas.
  In 2000, she appeared on NBC affiliate WESH and talked about staying physically fit in order to deal with the intense rigor of working with killer whales. She ran marathons, cycled, and lifted weights to stay in good shape. In 2006, her decade of work with orcas was profiled, including her leadership role in a two- to three-year revamp of the Shamu show. Brancheau acknowledged the dangers of working in close proximity to orcas. As a senior trainer, she appeared in various SeaWorld public performances for many years. The Shamu show's interaction of animal trainers with orcas was regarded as SeaWorld's star attraction.
  She was featured on SeaWorld billboards throughout Orlando. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a dissenting judge in a legal case involving her death (see below), stated that "To be fearless, courageous, tough – to perform a sport or activity at the highest levels of human capacity, even in the face of known physical risk – is among the greatest forms of personal achievement for many who take part in these activities."
caption: Brancheau on a slide out, which is a platform covered by less than a foot of water, with killer whale Katina in SeaWorld Orlando
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