Update: Assault and Battery Charges Pressed Against SeaWorld’s Head of Security

For Immediate Release:
July 25, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Late last night, three of the six PETA members who joined actor James Cromwell in a peaceful protest of SeaWorld’s “Orca Encounter” show pressed assault and battery charges against the company’s head of security in San Diego.

As PETA’s video of the protest shows, this was a nonconfrontational protest against cruelty to marine life. All seven protesters were taken away in handcuffs, but Cromwell was separated from the rest of the group. The other six protesters were detained out of public view, and they reported that their handcuffs were removed and they were sitting and obeying uniformed security officers when SeaWorld’s head of security—who was in civilian clothes and didn’t identify himself—roughly handled, assaulted, and attacked three of the group. He reportedly went person to person and tried to wrestle phones out of their hands, threw two protesters to the ground and put his leg on them, bent their hands and limbs roughly backwards, sat on them, and put his knee on one woman’s chest until she yelled that she couldn’t breathe.

“Being the head of security for a failing business may be frustrating, but physically attacking peaceful PETA protesters who want only to plead for the release of the animals at SeaWorld is inexcusable conduct,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “With the company’s long list of orca deaths, we thank James Cromwell for his big heart in calling SeaWorld a horror show.”

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment,” and more information about SeaWorld—including Monday’s death of 3-month-old Kyara—is available at SeaWorldOfHurt.com.