‘Girl Meets World’ Star Makes Video Plea to Kids and Parents: Stay Away from SeaWorld

August Maturo Teams Up With PETA Kids to Demand Orcas’ Release to a Seaside Sanctuary

For Immediate Release:
March 30, 2017

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

In a new video for PETA Kids, 9-year-old Girl Meets World star August Maturo takes the place of an orca at SeaWorld: He paces back and forth in a tiny barren room, bangs on the door, cries for help, and dreams of a better life. “Sometimes, I imagine what it would be like to travel miles and miles each day and seeing the blue of the ocean in the morning,” he says. “I imagine what it would be like to see my world—instead of SeaWorld.”

“Would you support this kind of abuse?” he concludes. “When you go to SeaWorld, this is what you’re paying for. Please urge SeaWorld to transfer its orcas to sea sanctuaries.”

In nature, orcas share intricate social relationships, work cooperatively to find food, and traverse up to 100 miles of ocean every day. Those in SeaWorld’s tanks float listlessly, break their teeth by gnawing on steel gates and concrete walls, and lash out at trainers and other orcas imprisoned with them in the same tiny enclosures. Thirty-eight orcas have died prematurely on the company’s watch.

PETA Kids—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—is calling on SeaWorld to release its orcas to a seaside sanctuary where they could be rehabilitated and would finally have the opportunity to swim freely and engage in natural behavior with minimal human interaction.

August joins a long list of actors, musicians, and other celebrities—including McKenna Grace, Noah Cyrus, Rachel Crow, and China Anne McClain—who’ve teamed up with PETA Kids to promote kindness to animals.

For more information, please visit PETAKids.com.