‘SeaWorld: Where Grown Men Perform Sex Acts on Orcas,’ Proclaims New Billboard

PETA Highlights Abusement Park’s Forced-Breeding Practices

For Immediate Release:
January 27, 2016

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

In a twist on the traditional tourism ad, a new PETA billboard depicts a man cuddling up to—or mounted on—an orca-shaped pool toy, next to the slogan “SeaWorld: Where Grown Men Perform Sex Acts on Orcas.”

PETA is planning to run this billboard in San Diego to alert would-be SeaWorld visitors that the abusement park’s trainers masturbate male orcas to get their sperm and then insert tubes of semen into female orcas to impregnate them. Those who resist are taken from the water, where they are completely helpless, vulnerable, and unable to swim away or fight back as SeaWorld staff perform the procedure.

“PETA’s billboard shines a light on the sordid orca-breeding mill that operates behind the scenes at SeaWorld,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “SeaWorld’s business model relies on forcibly impregnating unwilling orcas so that their calves can be used as living museum pieces, confined to tiny concrete tanks, and deprived of everything that is natural and important to them—conditions that nobody with a conscience can support.”

Despite scientific studies showing that on average, females begin to reproduce in the wild at 14.9 years old, SeaWorld begins impregnating orcas while they’re still children as young as 8 years old. Blackfish subject Tilikum, whose severe psychological distress and aggression have caused the death of three people, has been used to father 21 calves—although as of last year, only 10 were still alive.

For more information, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com.