VIDEO: Police Drag 52-Year-Old Shackled, Bodypainted SeaWorld Protester From Airport Baggage Claim

For Immediate Release:
March 29, 2024

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

This morning, 52-year-old San Diego resident Carolina Roberts and another animal ally were arrested and forcibly removed from San Diego International Airport after posing peacefully on a baggage carousel wearing little more than black-and-white bodypaint and shackles to urge people to stay away from SeaWorld, where an orca named Corky is imprisoned. The pair were surrounded by a pod of PETA supporters armed with signs reading, “Boycott SeaWorld,” who chanted and marched through the terminal. Photos and video of the action are available here.

“I have had a long career, raised a family, and traveled the world, yet Corky has spent more years than I’ve been alive languishing in tiny, barren concrete tanks, separated from her mother and the other orcas in her pod, with nothing to see and only able to swim in endless circles,” says Roberts. “PETA and I are calling on everyone to stay away from SeaWorld and calling on it to release Corky to a seaside sanctuary, where she could dive deep, swim freely, and even possibly reunite with her loved ones.”

PETA points out that more than 40 orcas and over 500 other dolphins and whales have died—many prematurely—in SeaWorld’s tanks. Corky was captured off the coast of British Columbia in 1969 and is the longest-held captive orca in the world. She was used for years as a breeding machine at another facility, but none of her calves survived past 47 days. Her last pregnancy ended in a miscarriage when her dead baby was found at the bottom of a concrete tank at SeaWorld. Of the 13 members of her pod who were captured between 1968 and 1969, Corky is the only one still alive.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.