GiftRocket Scrubs SeaWorld From Gift Card List After PETA Appeal
Company Nabs Vegan Whale-Shaped Chocolates in Thanks for Removing Abusement Park From Online Gift Card Options
For Immediate Release:
October 2, 2018
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
After hearing from PETA about SeaWorld’s long history of mistreating animals—including that the company crams orcas into tiny concrete tanks in which they gnaw on metal gates in frustration and often die decades short of their natural life expectancy—GiftRocket has removed the abusement park from its list of suggested gift card options. In thanks, PETA sent the online gift card company a box of delicious, vegan whale-shaped chocolates.
“No compassionate company today is willing to support SeaWorld’s orca prisons,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is recognizing GiftRocket for promptly dropping SeaWorld and is calling on consumers everywhere to stand up for animals by refusing to buy a ticket to these parks or any other animal-exploiting operation.”
At least 40 orcas, over 300 other dolphins and whales, and approximately 450 seals, sea lions, and walruses have died at SeaWorld’s parks. The company has laid off more than 1,100 employees in recent years and recently reached a $4 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to possible violations of federal securities law. It’s also facing a class-action lawsuit by investors and a criminal fraud investigation, and its largest shareholder—Zhonghong Zhuoye Group Co., Ltd.—had to sell off an island resort complex this summer that it had planned to turn into a SeaWorld park.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—pushed for SeaWorld to ban orca breeding, which it eventually did, and is urging the company to close its tiny tanks and move the orcas and other animals to seaside sanctuaries where they could enjoy a more natural life.
GiftRocket joins a growing list of companies—including Hyundai Motor America, Panama Jack, Taco Bell, Thomas Cook, and WestJet, JetBlue, and Southwest airlines—that have cut ties with SeaWorld.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
