‘I’m Not a Performer—I’m a Prisoner’: Bella Thorne Is ‘Trapped’ in a Tank in New Anti-SeaWorld Campaign
For Immediate Release:
October 29, 2024
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Actor Bella Thorne turns director and editor for an emotional new PETA video campaign, which features two spots exposing the miserable lives of animals confined at SeaWorld: one in which she goes underwater to put herself in the place of a captive orca and another in which she urges viewers never to buy a ticket to the marine park.
“So desperate to escape, I chew metal bars and ram into concrete walls. … I’m not a performer. I’m a prisoner,” Thorne says in the first video, which shows her screaming for help and searching for a way out of the tank. “SeaWorld’s business thrives on our pain, on the denial of everything that’s natural and important to me.”
In the other video, Thorne is overcome with emotion as she recounts how SeaWorld forcibly impregnates female dolphins, forced a baby orca named Shamu to perform after her mother was shot and killed in front of her during her capture, and keeps orcas in tanks so cramped and shallow that they lash out in frustration—including by attacking each other and using their teeth to scrape other animals’ skin.
“Every purchase of a SeaWorld ticket contributes directly to the suffering of these highly emotional animals,” she says in the second video, wiping away tears. “Never purchase a ticket to SeaWorld—or any other abusement park.”
Thorne—who shot a promo for SeaWorld as a child but now regrets the decision—told PETA that she couldn’t stop crying while editing her videos, which include footage of orcas and other dolphins confined at SeaWorld.
Thorne is part of a long list of celebrities—including Joan Jett, Lala Kent, Noah Cyrus, Nikki Glaser, P!nk, and Steve Aoki—who have teamed up with PETA to speak out against marine parks.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
