topnews.in / CC “I think they should just shut them all down. I’ve never been a fan of places like that.”—Matt Damon on SeaWorld This weekend, Damon joined Bob Barker and tons of other stars who are speaking out against SeaWorld after yet another trainer was killed by the imprisoned orca Tilikum. The only … Read more »
ivillage / CC After the death of yet another orca trainer by frustrated, tormented Tillikum, retired Price Is Right host and outspoken animal defender Bob Barker issued a plea to SeaWorld to move Tillikum and its other imprisoned sea animals to sanctuaries. Well, the list of celebrities speaking out against the use and abuse of … Read more »
animal.discovery.com / CC Eyebrows are shooting up in the animal protection world, as SeaWorld has hired professional animal entertainer Jack Hanna to sing its praises in public. Given his own record of responsibility for numerous animal attacks (including an incident in which a chimpanzee he was using in a public display bit off a 5-year-old … Read more »
rusty.com / CC When I hear “Christmas spectacular,” I think snow, lights, and a tree—really, it doesn’t take much to make me happy. For the twisted folks at Loro Parque in Spain, however, it’s apparently not Christmas without some animal exploitation. Wholesome and heartwarming? Yeah, right. There was nothing festive about the death of a … Read more »
A beluga whale named Nico died this week at SeaWorld San Antonio, where he was being temporarily housed while the Georgia Aquarium underwent renovations. This marks the third time in the last three years that a beluga whale from the Georgia Aquarium has died. drake.marin.k12 / CC The cause of Nico’s death has … Read more »
When I was in elementary school, I had a friend named Katie. We slept over at each other’s houses, hung out during recess, and wore the same clothes, pretending to be twins. I was so ready to give her the other half of my best-friend necklace—but then I heard her talking smack about me in … Read more »
csiwhalesalive / CC After a brief glimmer of hope that the slaughter in Taiji, Japan, would not happen this year, it has belatedly begun. Of the 100 dolphins rounded up so far, half will be released and the other half will be sent to prison aquariums. Fifty pilot whales have been slaughtered. But there is … Read more »
Freeda Fish has transformed into Sammy the Sea Kitten. Lookin’ fierce with her new do, Freeda Fish—er, I mean Sammy the Sea Kitten—has hit the road and is handing out plush sea kitten toys across the country to children visiting aquariums. She wants the kiddies (and their parents) to know that sea kittens, like … Read more »
moviegoods / CC “[A] living, breathing movie whose horrifying disclosures feel fully earned.” —The New York Times “To watch bleeding dolphins struggle for their last breath, to actually hear their agony, is devastating. … [Y]ou feel culpable just for being part of the species that can teach another mammal tricks, reward it with snacks … Read more »
harrywalker / CC “Would you go to see a brilliant actor who’s been framed for something that he didn’t do, and put him on a stage and say he’s going to do Hamlet for you, and why don’t you enjoy it? That’s a hell of an analogy, but it’s about the same thing.” That’s what … Read more »
flickr / CC The folks who scoffed at our proposal to buy SeaWorld and convert its facilities into non-animal theme parks might reconsider their stance after reading about the real cost of having these parks continue with business as usual. Last week, we received word from a whistleblower that a dolphin named Dixie, who is … Read more »
MagazinePK / CC Tons! No, we didn’t mean it like that. Jessica knows what it’s like to live in a fishbowl, and although she may not be the brightest bulb in the room, we’re hoping that she might empathize with whales and dolphins who are forced to be on display their entire lives and cancel … Read more »
Yippee—it’s the Aquaculture America Convention: a bunch of aquaculturists (fiendish fish farmers) trawling around a trade show that feeds off “aquacruelty” (my made-up term for fish abuse). Not my idea of a fun time. But wait, what’s going on outside Seattle’s convention center? It’s a pile of PETA members playing dead on the sidewalk: … Read more »
place2place / CC $825 billion. That’s a lot of stimulus package. And Congress says zoos and aquariums won’t see a penny of it. While that’s all well and good (as zoos are no vacation homes for animals), we’ve come up with a proposal that’s a win-win situation for some big zoos. We have offered to … Read more »
csudh / CC It’s not often that we post an entry about octopi, but this story is definitely worth the mention. When employees at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, were puzzled by the constant short-circuiting of lights, they thought it was a result of technical difficulties. It turns out, however, that Otto the … Read more »
