Holding Naturalizaton Events at a Facility That Imprisons Animals, Risks Employees' Lives, and Breaks U.S. Laws Is Insulting, Says Group
For Immediate Release:
July 7, 2011
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Orlando, Fla. -- This morning, PETA fired off a letter to Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), urging him to make this year's Fourth of July swearing-in ceremony of 315 of America's newest citizens the last to take place at SeaWorld. In the letter, PETA points out that SeaWorld confines orcas and other highly intelligent animals to cramped, barren tanks—depriving them of everything that's natural and important to them and leading to their premature deaths. PETA also reminds Mayorkas of SeaWorld's chronic failure to protect its employees—as was the case in the violent death of a trainer on February 24, 2010, after she was attacked by a killer whale who had killed twice before, resulting in a $70,000 fine for the park's violation of federal law.
"SeaWorld is a place of suffering, deception, denial of freedom, and death—not the ideals that America stands for," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk, a naturalized U.S. citizen of British origin. "Granting U.S. citizenship at a business enterprise with a history of placing employees' lives at risk, abusing animals, and violating federal law is an insult to new American citizens and all freedom-loving beings."
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
PETA's letter to Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services follows.
July 7, 2011
Alejandro N. Mayorkas
Director
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Dear Mr. Mayorkas:
On behalf of PETA, I am writing to urge the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) to ensure that Monday’s naturalization ceremony at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, will be the last to take place at SeaWorld parks in light of the company’s willful failure to protect the lives and safety of its employees and the animals in its care.
As you may know, on February 24, 2010, SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed during a show when Tilikum, a 12,000-pound male killer whale, pulled her underwater and shook and tossed her as he swam through the tank for forty minutes before rescuers were able to recover her body. According to the autopsy report, Ms. Brancheau’s suffered spinal cord injuries and a lacerated liver, and her ribs, sternum, legs, arms, and jaw were broken. She also had bruises and cuts all over her body, and her scalp and left arm were torn entirely from it. Her death was only the latest in a history of deaths, hospitalizations, and serious injuries by killer whales occurring at SeaWorld and SeaWorld-connected parks. Since at least 1971, there have been dozens of other occasions in which trainers have been bitten, rammed, dragged to the bottom of the pool, and held underwater by killer whales at SeaWorld. As a result, after Ms. Brancheau’s death, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued SeaWorld a citation for willfully exposing employees to life-threatening hazards when interacting with orcas and assessed the maximum penalty—a $70,000 fine.
We would be remiss to not mention the irony of a naturalization ceremony on Independence Day—the ultimate celebration of freedom—taking place where orcas and other highly intelligent animals are confined to barren, concrete tanks the human equivalent of a bathtub and deprived of everything that is natural to them, leading to their premature deaths. At SeaWorld, these animals have nothing to do but circle endlessly in tiny tanks full of chemically treated water, performing cruel and unnatural tricks for dead fish.
PETA urges CIS to adopt a policy prohibiting agency ceremonies or other events at SeaWorld or any other venue with a history of flagrant violations of federal law or which is predicated on cruelty and suffering. We hope to hear from you in this regard.
Very truly yours,
Jared S. Goodman