‘Orcas Suffer at SeaWorld’ Banner to Fly Over Fiesta Parade

PETA Calls On Families to Stay Away From Abusement Park Until Orcas Are Sent to Sea Sanctuaries

For Immediate Release:
April 27, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

A massive PETA banner proclaiming, “Orcas Suffer at SeaWorld—Stay Away,” will fly over the Battle of Flowers Parade during Fiesta San Antonio on Friday. PETA is calling on SeaWorld to release all the orcas in its tanks to sea sanctuaries—including Takara and her newborn calf, the last orca to be born into captivity at the park and, if not released, doomed to spend decades in a small concrete tank.

Where:     The plane will fly over the parade, from Broadway and E. Grayson streets to N. Santa Rosa and W. Travis streets, San Antonio

When:     Friday, April 28, 12 noon–4 p.m.

“As Fiesta commemorates Texas’ fight for freedom, a newborn orca calf has been sentenced to life in prison inside a tiny concrete tank at SeaWorld,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on families to stay away from the park until it agrees to move Takara, her newborn baby, and all marine mammals to sanctuaries, where they’d have some semblance of a natural life.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—notes that while orcas in nature spend their entire lives in close-knit family pods, Takara has been artificially inseminated many times, separated from her mother and two of her offspring, and shuffled from theme park to theme park. At a seaside sanctuary, she and her fifth calf might someday be reunited with Takara’s mother, other children, and grandchildren.

For more information, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com.