Sierra Madre Native Heads to Court for Protesting SeaWorld at Rose Parade

For Immediate Release:
January 31, 2014

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

When SeaWorld’s float hit the Rose Parade on January 1, it was met by a group of PETA supporters—including Sierra Madre native Katerina Davidovich—who sat down in front of it in a peaceful protest against SeaWorld’s abuse of orcas. The protesters, holding posters that read, “Boycott SeaWorld,” and wearing “SeaWorld Hurts Orcas” T-shirts, were dragged from the parade route and arrested, and Davidovich will head to court in Pasadena on February 3.

Katerina Davidovich spent her childhood in Sierra Madre, where she attended Sierra Madre Elementary School, and considers it her hometown. A vegan, she works as a research assistant and fosters homeless animals.

Davidovich has volunteered at farmed-animal sanctuaries and has campaigned against fur and animal experiments. Her arrest at the Rose Parade wasn’t her first for causes that she’s passionate about: She was taken away in handcuffs after protesting the Koch brothers over their position on climate change and other conservative issues. Davidovich thanks her parents for raising her to be compassionate, outspoken, and independent and her supportive vegan boyfriend for backing her every step of the way.

Prompted in part by watching the documentary film Blackfish, which exposed how orcas suffer physically and psychologically in the tiny concrete tanks at SeaWorld, Davidovich was among the first to approach and block the theme park’s float. “You don’t need to be a superhero to take a stand for animals,” she says. “Anyone can do what we did at the Rose Parade. All you need is a voice and the willingness to use it.”

Davidovich, 24, lives in Los Angeles’ Glassell Park.