When SeaWorld decided to offer up 20 million shares of common stock in an initial public offering, no one expected PETA to be one of the first in line to buy.

But Wall Street was in for a surprise. We quickly purchased the smallest number of shares necessary to give us the right to attend and speak at annual meetings and to submit shareholder resolutions asking for policy changes. Our first order of business as part owners of SeaWorld? Getting the orcas out—including Corky, who has been enslaved by SeaWorld for 44 years.  

iStockphoto.com/DaveRig

We will educate stockholders about how marine parks tear orcas and dolphins away from their homes and families and imprison them in minuscule concrete tanks, where they suffer from captivity-induced stress and illness. 

And of course meanwhile, PETA and our supporters will continue trying to win freedom for orcas and dolphins as soon as possible by telling everyone that these animals live in a SeaWorldofHurt. 

Update: Prompted by PETA's complaint about a child who was bitten by a dolphin at SeaWorld, the USDA conducted an investigation and cited the marine park for several violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including the use of expired surgical materials, some almost a decade old. "The use of expired medications and materials … is not an appropriate method to treat injuries, or to prevent, control, & diagnose diseases," the report noted. The USDA also documented that a dolphin tank and the areas surrounding the orca performance tank were in disrepair, including containing cracked and crumbling concrete and rusty beams that could pose a threat to the health and safety of both the animals and workers. The USDA pointed out that the unsafe conditions "might create a health risk if these pieces of concrete fall off into the pool and get ingested, or if they become abrasive" and that they "do not facilitate cleaning and disinfection."

Originally posted on December 3rd, 2012:

Following the release of video footage showing a dolphin biting the hand of a young girl at SeaWorld Orlando, PETA submitted a complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requesting an investigation to determine whether the incident stemmed from Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations. 

Risky Business

The video shows 8-year-old Jillian Thomas feeding fish to the dolphin as part of the Dolphin Cove attraction at the park. When she raises up the paper carton used to hold the fish, the dolphin surges up to grab it, biting Jillian's hand in the process. The girl sustained puncture wounds to her hand, and the dolphin may have ingested the entire paper carton.

AWA regulations require that animal attractions have "sufficient distance and/or barriers between the animal and the general viewing public so as to assure the safety of animals and the public." PETA has also asked the USDA to ensure that if the dolphin did ingest the carton, the animal receive proper veterinary care, per AWA requirements.

A similar incident occurred in 2006, when a dolphin's mouth had to be pried open to free a 7-year-old boy's hand. It was the second time in three weeks that a child had been bitten at the attraction, but SeaWorld refused to change anything.

Amusement or Abuse?

These episodes provide further reminders (as if more were needed) of how little SeaWorld is concerned with safety in its parks—except, of course, for the protection of its ticket sales. Not only has its unwillingness to take necessary precautions caused children to be harmed, it's also resulted in severe injuries and even the deaths of its trainer and the animals it holds captive. 

Even if SeaWorld implemented every safety procedure possible, though, life in captivity would still be miserable for the dolphins, orcas, and other animals imprisoned in its parks. Deprived of their families, social lives, and freedom of movement, these smart, sensitive beings grow increasingly frustrated, contributing to the risk for sudden, violent behavior.

Catch Kindness, Free Animals

Unlike SeaWorld, young Jillian is showing compassion—according to an Associated Press article, she prayed for the dolphin who bit her and hopes the animal "didn't get sick from eating the paper carton."

Teach kids to be kind: Please don't ever take your family to SeaWorld or any other attraction that holds animals captive in cages or tanks. 

Does this sound like déjà vu to you? A weekend visitor to SeaWorld in San Antonio has sent PETA disturbing photographs of a dolphin who appears to be missing a chunk of flesh from his or her lower mandible. The injury is strikingly similar to the one sustained by an orca named Nakai at the San Diego SeaWorld just a few months ago. Just as we did for  Nakai, PETA has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and requested an investigation into the cause of the dolphin's injury. 

In Nakai's case, the USDA listed the orca's injury as being caused by a recessed track that holds gates that separate two of the tanks. Another injury to another animal, also caused by SeaWorld's dangerous enclosures, would demonstrate a clear violation of the Animal Welfare Act, which states that facilities must be structurally sound and free from objects, projections, or edges that may cause injury and that all animals must be handled in a manner that does not cause physical harm. 

But even without injurious enclosures, SeaWorld still harms marine mammals by robbing them of everything that is natural, pleasant, and important to them, such as living in family pods and swimming up to 100 miles a day in the open ocean. 

And SeaWorld sentences animals to an early grave: Orcas, for instance, can expect to live an average of 30 to 50 years in the wild, and some live as long as 90 years. The median age for orcas in captivity is only 9 years. The debilitating stress of captivity weakens the animals' immune systems. In fact, some other weekend visitors to SeaWorld San Antonio reportedly told employees about a shark who was lying belly-up in a tank and appeared to be dead.

SeaWorld: Dangerous for human beings and deadly for marine animals.

Update:

After visiting SeaWorld and taking photographs of Nakai's injury (two of which are shown below), Dr. Ingrid N. Visser, founder and principal scientist of the Orca Research Trust, found that there are "puncture marks that match orca teeth spacing," which "is a clear indication that an altercation between the orcas was involved." The puncture marks in question can be seen at the bottom right of the wound in the first photo below:

©Ingrid N. Visser, Ph.D.

©Ingrid N. Visser, Ph.D.

This evidence strongly suggests that Nakai's wound was indeed caused by a bite resulting from incompatible confinement rather than contacting with the side of the pool, as SeaWorld has alleged.

Originally posted September 28:

Following a serious and gruesome injury to an orca in an avoidable attack, PETA has submitted a complaint asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to take disciplinary action against SeaWorld for housing orcas incompatibly in violation of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

As you can see in these disturbing photographs, Nakai, an 11-year-old male orca at SeaWorld in San Diego, sustained a laceration so significant that, as a whistleblower said, "a dinner plate-sized chunk of his lower mandible [has been] sheared off, exposing underlying tissues, and bone." The flesh cut from him "was big enough and intact enough for SeaWorld to retrieve it from the bottom of the pool."

According to the whistleblower's report to journalist Tim Zimmermann, Nakai's injury was a result of "a major altercation" between Nakai and two other orcas, Keet and Ikaika. The AWA makes it clear that "marine mammals that are not compatible must not be housed in the same enclosure." Yet SeaWorld parks have a long history of housing incompatible orcas from widely divergent groups together in enclosures—and the result has been stress, agitation, aggressive and bloody raking, serious injury, and death.

What You Can Do

It's clear that SeaWorld can't be trusted to make the safety and well-being of marine animals its top priority. Please don't ever visit SeaWorld (or any other marine-mammal park)—and tell company executives why you won't support the abuse of Nakai and the other intelligent, complex animals they've imprisoned and enslaved.

Although some aquariums are still willing to host raucous parties despite knowing that the pounding music is hell on marine mammals' sensitive sonar systems, more progressive aquariums are refusing. Case in point: Rocker Tony Kanal teamed up with PETA to let the under-construction Ripley's Aquarium of Canada in Toronto know that rock belongs in arenas, not aquariums. Here's his letter asking the aquarium not to allow rowdy parties if it intends to keep whales and dolphins in the building:

Almost immediately, Tony received this positive response:

Not only is Ripley's saving whales and dolphins from becoming disoriented and agitated when deafening music disrupts their ability to navigate and communicate via sonar, the aquarium is also saving them from the lifetime of frustration, illness, and stress that they would have had in captivity.

While all marine mammals deserve their freedom, the least that aquariums can do is not torment them with blasting music. Join Jane Lynch in asking Atlanta Pride to move its upcoming party to a more humane venue than the Georgia Aquarium, and join Tommy Lee in asking SeaWorld to cancel its loud "Shamu Rocks" shows. 

Tommy Lee might be one of the "bad boys of rock," but he's always good to animals. While on tour in Southern California, the upside-down drummer flipped right side up to tell SeaWorld San Diego that it wasn't welcome to use his music at its "Shamu Rocks" shows. During these shows, sound-sensitive captive orcas are forced to perform while rock music blasts through the tank and lights flash all around them.

© StarmaxInc.com

In a letter penned on PETA's behalf to SeaWorld San Diego President John T. Reilly, Tommy wrote:

Tommy noted that while all of SeaWorld's captive animals should be released to sanctuaries, the least the park can do is spare orcas from being forced to perform while loud music terrifies and confuses them. To find out more about how orcas suffer in the tanks at SeaWorld, check out David Kirby's new book Death at SeaWorld. 

Collapsed dorsal fins are rarely seen in the wild, and when they do occur in the wild, it's usually only in orcas who are injured or ill.
Olivier Bruchez|cc by 2.0

You don't have to be a rock star to be a rock star for animals. Tell Reilly to stop tormenting orcas and cancel the "Shamu Rocks" shows.

The release of a video showing Kasatka, a wild-caught orca enslaved at SeaWorld, exploding in extreme frustration at trainer Ken Peters in front of visitors to the theme park is sending shockwaves of outrage and dismay through the media and the public over the appalling pressures of captivity on orcas and other wild marine mammals—and the danger to those who come into contact with them.

As David Kirby describes in his book Death at SeaWorld, when Kasatka heard her calf's distress calls for her from another tank, she dragged Peters underwater repeatedly, shaking him about before the stunned audience. Eventually gaining his freedom, Peters required surgery for his injuries. But SeaWorld ignored the risks, permitting the perilous situations to continue.

This video footage was previously shown during the Secretary of Labor v. SeaWorld of Florida LLC trial, which resulted from the horrific death of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau during a disturbingly similar episode involving another captive orca, Tilikum. Judge Ken Welsch, who called the video "chilling," held SeaWorld liable for permitting hazardous interactions between humans and the huge, dangerously stressed animals.

What You Can Do

Please join PETA in asking The Blackstone Group—the company that owns SeaWorld—to release its animal captives into sanctuaries. And if you know people who are planning a trip to SeaWorld, encourage them to visit PETA's new website, SeaWorldOfHurt.com, to learn what kinds of cruelty their dollars would support.

PETA Files readers know that SeaWorld hurts animals, so PETA's new website, SeaWorld of Hurt aims to return the favor, hurting the marine mammal prison by showing people that its parks are no fun for animals. 

SeaWorld's cruelty to animals was widely publicized during PETA's landmark lawsuit in behalf of captive orcas, which broke legal ground and gave rise to the idea that all species deserve protection from slavery. Our lead counsel, Jeff Kerr, recently presented PETA's argument for the release of enslaved orcas at the Superpod conference on San Juan Island, a meeting of orca advocates scheduled to coincide with the annual gathering of the "J," "K," and "L" pods of the Southern Resident orca population.

Animal advocates discussed efforts to secure freedom for marine mammal prisoners, including PETA's lawsuit on behalf of Lolita, an orca captured in 1970 who continues to languish in solitary confinement at the Miami Seaquarium, despite the fact that her pod has since been given protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Meanwhile, we're moving the conversation from the courtroom to the chat room, aiming to educate would-be SeaWorld patrons and make the parks' profits sink like a rock.

Join us! Ask the Blackstone Group—the company that owns SeaWorld—to release the orcas to ocean sanctuaries that can provide them with an environment that is closer to what nature intended, and post PETA's action alert to your social-networking pages.