PETA to Rally at SeaWorld HQ During First Annual Meeting

As Investors Continue to Dump Stock Over Orca Care, Shareholder PETA Calls for Seaside Sanctuaries

For Immediate Release:
June 10, 2014

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA and a giant “orca” will make a splash outside SeaWorld’s headquarters in Orlando on Wednesday to draw attention to the fact that the orcas confined to SeaWorld’s tiny concrete tanks are denied everything that’s natural and important to them: family, friends, and freedom. The meeting will be held online, so PETA—which owns the amount of stock in SeaWorld needed under Securities and Exchange Commission regulations in order to ask shareholder questions and submit shareholder resolutions—will ask the company when it plans to retire the orcas to coastal sanctuaries, where they’ll be able to live more natural lives.

Where:   Main entrance to SeaWorld (at the intersection of Central Florida Parkway and SeaWorld Drive), Orlando

When:    Wednesday, June 11, 9:30 a.m.

“SeaWorld is an orca circus that desperately needs to modernize its business model by building seaside sanctuaries for these miserable, deprived animals,” says PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders. “SeaWorld’s legacy is the deaths of dozens of orcas and the injuries to and deaths of trainers—while it teaches nothing about the natural behavior of these majestic animals.”

SeaWorld’s stock tanked 7 percent after a bill to outlaw forcing orcas to entertain audiences was introduced in the California State Legislature, and the company’s largest investor, Blackstone Group, has already sold more than 35 million shares. Shares continue to erode, dropping by more than 17.5 percent over the past year, which has seen declines in revenue and attendance.

For more information, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com.