PETA 'Orca' Calls for Boycott as Tourists Arrive for Brunch
For Immediate Release:
February 25, 2011
Contact:
David Perle 757-622-7382
As SeaWorld holds its first "Dine With Shamu" event since the shocking death of trainer Dawn Brancheau last year at SeaWorld Orlando, a PETA "orca" will lead a protest outside SeaWorld San Antonio on Saturday. Holding signs that read, "SeaWorld: Let Orcas out of Prison" and "Stay Away! Orcas Wish They Could Too," PETA supporters will call attention to the suffering of the marine animals who are deprived of ocean life and held captive in cramped tanks at SeaWorld.
Where: Main entrance to SeaWorld (intersection of N. Ellison Drive and Westover Hills Boulevard), San Antonio
When: Saturday, February 26, 11 a.m.
"SeaWorld keeps huge orcas in what are basically cement boxes, depriving these smart, social animals of everything that is natural and important to them, including the sea and their families," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "If SeaWorld's diners realized how their meal tickets support animal suffering, they'd lose their lunch."
Orcas are intelligent predators who, in the wild, work cooperatively, share complex relationships, and swim up to 100 miles every day. Many orcas held captive at SeaWorld were taken from their ocean homes and family pods. Captive orcas continually swim in circles in small, barren concrete tanks and live far short of their natural 60-year life expectancy. At least 23 orcas have died in U.S. SeaWorld facilities since 1986—and not one died of old age.
Orcas aren't the only ones imperiled at SeaWorld. This week marks the one-year anniversary of the death of Brancheau, who suffered severe injuries before being drowned by a frustrated orca who had previously killed two other people.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
