Video: Alfonso Herrera Goes Undercover at SeaWorld

Sense8 Star Reveals Scarred Bottlenose Dolphins, Listless Orcas, and Other Suffering Animals During Recent Trip to Abusement Park

For Immediate Release:
April 21, 2016

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

“Unnatural,” “not normal,” and “inhumane”—those are just a few of the words that Rebelde and Sense8 star Alfonso Herrera uses to describe SeaWorld in a new PETA video, filmed on location at the San Diego park.

After viewing the damning SeaWorld documentary Blackfish, Herrera wanted to see the animals’ conditions for himself. In PETA’s video, he visits the orca tank, where he points out how unnatural it is for an orca—who, in nature, would swim up to 100 miles per day with her family pod—to lie motionless in the water. He also highlights the teeth marks and scars on the bottlenose dolphins and orcas who have apparently fought one another in frustration, notes how cruel it is to display a polar bear outdoors in approximately 85-degree weather, and observes a distressed walrus repeatedly eating and regurgitating the same food.

“It’s appalling to see these powerful, majestic animals trapped in tiny tanks, where they can only swim in circles and attack each other in desperation,” says Herrera. “My friends at PETA and I ask everyone to join me and my family in refusing to buy a ticket to SeaWorld.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—is calling on SeaWorld to build coastal sanctuaries where the animals could feel waves, hear wild pods, and enjoy some semblance of a natural life.

Herrera is part of a growing list of celebrities—including Kate del Castillo, Jason Biggs, Jessica Biel, Carla Morrison, Bob Barker, Marisa Miller, and Alec Baldwin—who’ve teamed up with PETA to speak out against SeaWorld.

Broadcast quality footage is available. For more information, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com.