Swim With Orcas in PETA’s Virtual Reality Look at SeaWorld Cruelty

Empathy-Building Experience out to Win Hearts and Minds of Orlando Tourists All Summer

For Immediate Release:
August 17, 2016

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

People in Orlando are seeing—and feeling—what it’s like for orcas held captive at SeaWorld. This week, PETA has set up its state-of-the-art “I, Orca” empathy experience in the city, giving participants the opportunity to use wireless Google virtual reality goggles to immerse themselves in a world where they can swim freely in the ocean with their orca family—and hear the cries of an orca trapped in SeaWorld’s barren concrete tanks.

When:    Beginning Thursday, August 18, 12 noon, and continuing through Sunday, August 21
Where:    Southwest corner of International Drive and Universal Boulevard, Orlando

“‘I, Orca’ gives an orca’s-eye view of the deprivation and misery that result from imprisoning ocean-going cetaceans in a tiny abusement park tank,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is urging tourists to keep SeaWorld off their itineraries until these orcas swim free in seaside sanctuaries.”

“I, Orca” reveals how orcas at SeaWorld spend their lives floating listlessly in shallow tanks, unable to swim quickly, dive deep, or interact with their family pods. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—is calling on SeaWorld to develop seaside sanctuaries in which the long-suffering orcas can finally have some semblance of a natural life.

“I, Orca” will appear next at Church Street Market starting August 24 and will remain in Orlando until the end of September. It’s currently on display in all three cities where SeaWorld has parks: Orlando, San Antonio, and San Diego.

For more information, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com.