PETA’s New Video Lampoons SeaWorld’s Expensive PR Fail

SeaWorld’s most recent costly PR effort—a huge run of TV ads explaining the end to its orca-breeding program and circus-style shows but defending its decision to continue keeping orcas captive—is ripe for parody, as proved by a new PETA video that asks, “You know what orcas hate?” and answers, “The ocean.”

The new parody video, available here (with a safe-for-work version available here), mocks SeaWorld’s attempt to lure back customers to its abusement parks. “We’ll still treat you like an idiot and make you think that ending our breeding program will make a difference to the whales who will still be stuck at SeaWorld, swimming in their own diluted waste for decades until they die,” the video says. “Let’s keep whales where they’re happiest—in tiny concrete prisons. Because we need to sell more Shamu dolls.”

“Some of SeaWorld’s justifications for continued cruelty are too laughable to argue with, so we thought we’d just make fun of them,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “In all seriousness, people need to stay away from SeaWorld until it releases the long-suffering animals to seaside sanctuaries.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—notes that in the wild, orcas share intricate social relationships, work cooperatively to find food, and traverse 100 miles of ocean every day. But at SeaWorld, orcas are housed in incompatible groups in tiny tanks, break their teeth by gnawing on metal tank bars, and are given the drug diazepam to manage stress-induced, aggressive psychotic behavior.

For more information, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com.