Teen to Spend 12 Hours in a Tub for SeaWorld Protest

For Immediate Release:
April 8, 2020

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Social distancing isn’t stopping 14-year-old Centereach, New York, resident Erin Ersoy—a member of Students Opposing Speciesism (SOS), a PETA-backed, youth-led revolt against human supremacy—from sticking up for animals. Tomorrow, she’ll spend 12 hours in her bathtub for a protest against SeaWorld, where naturally far-ranging marine mammals are confined to barren concrete tanks that, to them, are the size of a bathtub.

She’ll also share updates throughout the day on Instagram at @ethically.erin. Photos will be available after the protest.

“Many of us are feeling the stress of captivity, but it’s nothing compared to a lifetime in a cramped tank at SeaWorld,” says Erin. “I’m spending 12 hours in my bathtub in solidarity with the orcas and other dolphins who have spent decades quarantined away from their ocean homes.”

More information can be found below and at SeaWorldOfHurt.com.

• In nature, orcas traverse up to 140 miles of ocean in a day—and in order to swim that far in the largest tank at SeaWorld Orlando, they’d have to do 4,280 laps. Across all three SeaWorld parks, 140 dolphins are crammed into just seven tiny tanks, where they can’t escape attacks from frustrated, aggressive animals.
• Erin is calling on other students to speak up for animals with her by joining SOS, which fights the outdated mindset that despite their extraordinary talents, abilities, and intelligence, all other animal species are inferior to our own and that it’s acceptable to exploit them.
• SeaWorld is currently closed to visitors, its CEO recently resigned, and 90% of its employees have been furloughed. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—is calling on the park to use this time to develop a plan to move the orcas, bottlenose dolphins, and other marine mammals it holds captive to seaside sanctuaries. More information is available at com.