Victory: SeaQuest Fort Worth Shutters Amid PETA Campaign and Cruelty Investigation
For Immediate Release:
October 28, 2024
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Following a long and sordid history of animal suffering and death, SeaQuest’s Fort Worth location has shut its doors. The closing comes after PETA submitted a complaint to local authorities in August over whistleblower reports the group received from three former SeaQuest Fort Worth employees revealing that dozens of fish, including two sharks, perished at the seedy facility or during transport there. The complaint prompted the Fort Worth Police Department to open a criminal cruelty-to-animals investigation into the disgraced mall aquarium.
“Champagne corks are popping at PETA now that this blight on beautiful Fort Worth has finally stopped exploiting animals and endangering the public,” says PETA Foundation Associate Director Molly Johnson. “The SeaQuest chain is a scourge, and PETA will continue to call out its dreadful and deadly petting zoos until every location follows suit and closes.”
Prior to the closure, SeaQuest Fort Worth had racked up scores of citations under the federal Animal Welfare Act, including for failing to properly handle a sloth and a cat, both of whom bit visitors during interactions, and for a duck enclosure that was covered in feces and old food waste.
PETA notes that SeaQuest CEO Vince Covino quit the beleaguered chain in August, and following pressure from the group, its locations in Colorado, Connecticut, and Georgia have all closed. The group has also stopped SeaQuest from opening facilities in Florida, New York, and North Dakota.
Most recently in PETA’s campaign against SeaQuest Fort Worth, the group erected two unmissable sky-high pleas just minutes from the facility urging viewers to stay away. The group notes that sharks use between eight and 13 senses, that fish feel pain and have long memories, and that female ducks pick male ducks to mate with based on their dancing ability.
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 the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
