PETA Statement: SeaQuest Bankruptcy

For Immediate Release:
December 3, 2024

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Yesterday, SeaQuest Holdings, LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company reported less than $1 million in assets but over $10 million in liabilities, and according to the court records, Vince Covino is still listed as a CEO and consultant and was paid over $128,000 between December 2023 and November 2024, despite announcing in August that he was stepping down from his role. Please see the following statement from PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Wildlife Rebecca Smudzinski:

SeaQuest’s financial failure offers yet more proof that animal exploitation is a losing business model, as compassionate consumers don’t want to fork over their dollars to look at fish, otters, and birds suffering in cramped, filthy enclosures and forced into stressful public encounters. This bankruptcy must not be a lifeline to keep this cruel and incompetent chain afloat—PETA is calling on SeaQuest to shut down its remaining locations and surrender the surviving animals to reputable, financially responsible facilities that can finally get them the care they desperately need.

PETA’s ongoing campaign against SeaQuest has included numerous complaints filed with federal and state authorities regarding many injuries to customers and egregious animal welfare issues, including animals who drowned, were burned, were intentionally deprived of food, or were stomped or crushed to death by customers, among other horrors. SeaQuest has closed four locations in the last two years, in Fort Worth, Texas; Littleton, Colorado; Trumbull, Connecticut; and Stonecrest, Georgia. PETA also helped prevent SeaQuest from opening locations in Florida, New York, and North Dakota.

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 PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.