Upsetting photos have surfaced showing in great detail the extent of a severe laceration sustained recently by an 11-year-old male orca at SeaWorld San Diego.

Staff and visitor testimonies reveal exactly how Tilikum, the 22-foot, 20,000lb SeaWorld killer whale, attacked trainer Dawn Brancheau last week (she died of "multiple traumatic injuries and drowning"). And it's precisely as scary as you might expect.

According to an analysis of the PR aftermath of the gruesome death at Sea World "the attack could actually drive up attendance of at least one demographic - teens and young adults." Scarily plausible. [Washington Post]