‘Orca’ in Tank to Beg, ‘Help Me—Boycott SeaWorld!’
After Expert Report Details Dolphin Suffering, PETA Is Urging Tourists to Stay Away From Abusement Park
For Immediate Release:
June 19, 2019
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
A PETA “orca” pleading, “Help me,” will float in a tiny tank in downtown Orlando on Thursday to urge passersby not to buy tickets to SeaWorld. The action follows the deaths of more than 40 orcas at the parks as well as a new expert report asserting that dolphins at all three SeaWorld locations have open wounds and extensive scarring on their faces and bodies—but trainers still ride on their backs and stand on their faces during performances.
When: Thursday, June 20, 12 noon
Where: At the intersection of E. Church St. and S. Orange Ave., Orlando
“Dozens of dolphins are packed into shallow tanks, forcibly bred, and used as surfboards and launch pads in SeaWorld’s shows,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is urging kind people everywhere to keep SeaWorld off their summer vacation itineraries.”
In nature, orcas may swim as far as 140 miles in a day, and dolphins swim up to 60 miles a day, dive to depths of nearly 1,500 feet, and maintain dynamic relationships within a large social network. At SeaWorld, 140 dolphins are squeezed into just seven small tanks and can’t escape attacks from other frustrated, aggressive dolphins. During shows, trainers place their full bodyweight on dolphins’ sensitive lower jaws, which may damage their hearing, strain muscles and joints, and exacerbate the injuries caused by confinement to the cramped tanks.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com or PETA.org.
