Statement From PETA re Death of Unna the Orca at SeaWorld
For Immediate Release:
December 21, 2015
Contact:
Lakisha Ridley 202-483-7382
PETA released the following statement about Unna, the orca who recently died at SeaWorld:
“Unna is the 38th orca used by SeaWorld to die far short of how long she was expected to live, though it is in fact hard to call it ‘living’ when her ‘life’ consisted of being taken away from her mother just before her sixth birthday, being impregnated when she was only 8 years old and giving birth to a stillborn orca, and being so deprived of enrichment and the ability to engage in natural behavior that she obsessively picked at the paint on the bottom of SeaWorld’s show pool floor until her face became badly injured,” says PETA Foundation Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. Heather Rally. “While the infection that killed this orca is common in captivity, there is no evidence to suggest that the same is true of orcas in nature. PETA is calling on SeaWorld to stop sentencing orcas to miserable lives of deprivation in dismal tanks and start building coastal sanctuaries. Thirty-eight dead orcas is 38 too many.”
More information about PETA’s campaign is available at SeaWorldOfHurt.com.
