Edgy Ad About SeaWorld’s Sex Acts on Orcas Will Cruise Marine Park

Cruel and Abusive Breeding Program Will Be Spotlighted on Mobile Billboard During Sunday Protest

For Immediate Release:
February 11, 2016

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA’s new mobile billboard—depicting a man on an orca-shaped pool toy and the slogan “SeaWorld: Where Grown Men Perform Sex Acts on Orcas”—will be highly visible on SeaWorld Drive over Presidents Day weekend. The edgy ad highlights the fact that SeaWorld’s trainers masturbate male orcas to get their sperm and then insert tubes of semen into female orcas to impregnate them. Those who resist are taken from the water, where they are completely helpless, vulnerable, and unable to swim away or fight back as SeaWorld staff perform the procedure. To raise awareness among uninformed abusement park attendees, PETA members and supporters will take the message straight to SeaWorld’s front door on Valentine’s Day, decked out in black-and-white clothing with a splash of red “blood” on their hands.

Where:           SeaWorld San Diego

When:             Sunday, February 14, 11 a.m.

“PETA is letting potential parkgoers know that SeaWorld props up its business model on the backs of the unwilling orcas it forcibly impregnates,” says PETA Foundation Director of Animal Law Jared Goodman. “We’re calling on kind people to show a little love for the animals imprisoned there by picking another destination for a family getaway.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—notes that scientific studies indicate that female orcas begin to reproduce in the wild at an average of 14.9 years old, but SeaWorld begins impregnating orcas while they’re still children as young as 8. Blackfish subject Tilikum, whose severe psychological distress and aggression have resulted in the death of three people, has been used to father 21 calves—although as of last year, only 10 were still alive.

For more information, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com.