Senior Citizens to SeaWorld: Don’t Take Our Social Security!

PETA’s Senior Supporters Blast Park for Exploiting Animals and Tax Loopholes

For Immediate Release:
May 22, 2013

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Orlando, Fla. – Holding signs that read, “SeaWorld: Don’t Take Our Social Security,” PETA members—led by senior citizens—will converge on SeaWorld in Orlando to protest the park’s recently revealed use of loopholes to avoid paying income tax and make more money off captive marine species. Although SeaWorld made more than $1 billion in profits last year, it paid almost no income taxes—meaning that it contributed almost nothing toward vital social programs such as supplemental Social Security for the elderly, veterans’ programs, and children’s health and educational programs. Meanwhile, the cement tanks that it uses to imprison dolphins and orcas remain, to them, the size of bathtubs.

When:   Thursday, May 23, 12 noon

Where:  Main entrance to SeaWorld (at the intersection of Central Florida Parkway and SeaWorld Drive), Orlando

“SeaWorld exploits both tax loopholes and the many animals it forces to perform tricks,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Delcianna Winders. “Profit is SeaWorld’s only concern—not the well-being of the community, the animals, or its employees.”

In the wild, orcas share intricate family relationships and swim as many as 100 miles every day. At SeaWorld, orcas continually swim in circles in small concrete tanks and are forced to perform circus-style tricks for food. These stressed orcas live far short of their natural life expectancy of up to about 50 years, rarely getting the chance to be “senior citizens” themselves, and are known to lash out: SeaWorld lists more than 100 incidents of orca aggression—including trainer injuries and death—in its own incomplete records.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.