SeaWorld Stock Takes Another Dive; PETA Buys More Shares

‘Junk’ Credit Rating by Standard & Poor’s Could Help Captive Marine Mammals Get Out of ‘Whale Jail’

For Immediate Release:
August 19, 2014

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

As SeaWorld’s stock continues to tank and stock analysts classify it as a “sell,” one organization is ready to buy. PETA has scooped up more shares in the company in order to retain the minimum investment that it needs to propose shareholder resolutions and submit formal shareholder questions, such as the one submitted by Jessica Biel on PETA’s behalf at the company’s June 2014 annual meeting: “When will SeaWorld develop a plan to move the orcas to a sea pen in a natural setting in line with public opinion?”

SeaWorld’s plummeting stock prices, which have already dropped more than 44 percent since the stock was first issued, are just one symptom of what’s been dubbed “the Blackfish effect,” after the release of the hit documentary that exposed how SeaWorld tears baby orcas away from their loving mothers, aunts, and other pod members and forces them into a lifetime of deprivation and physical and psychological suffering in captivity. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—is calling on the amusement park to develop coastal sanctuaries where the orcas would be rehabilitated and finally have the opportunity to engage in natural behavior, which visitors could observe from nearby “whale watching” centers that would keep SeaWorld in the black.

“SeaWorld cannot provide orcas and other captive marine mammals with anything resembling their natural habitat―a vast expanse of the ocean and a real life,” says PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders. “Animals suffer every moment of their miserable lives in SeaWorld’s concrete tanks, and PETA’s solution to free them is the smartest move for investors and animals alike.”

Although SeaWorld has announced plans to enlarge its tanks after the firestorm brought on by Blackfish, the proposed tanks would still be only a small fraction of the 100-mile area that orcas in the wild swim in a single day.

For more information, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com.