Written by Jeff Mackey
The always remarkable Bob Barker has sent urgent letters to the major sponsors of the cruel Calgary Stampede encouraging them to take PETA's advice and end their support of the deadly event.
Bob leapt into action after The Price Is Right—the game show he hosted for 35 years—began giving away prize packages that contained trips to the Stampede and to SeaWorld. Shortly afterward, Bob contacted the program's producers to ask them to stop promoting cruel animal spectacles on the show.
Now Bob has gone the extra mile by writing to some of the main companies that sponsor the Stampede—including Bell Canada, General Motors of Canada Limited, and Anheuser-Busch International—detailing the kinds of animal suffering that their money will be funding and urging them to withdraw their financial backing from the event.
Rodeos are always catastrophic for animals, but the Calgary Stampede is among the worst since they allow the use of barbaric devices that are illegal in many other countries, including electric prods and bucking straps (which are tightened around the animals' groins) in order to irritate and enrage the animals.
During last year's stampede, one horse had to be euthanized after breaking a leg on the very first day, and the previous year's event cost six horses their lives. And that's on top of the excruciating injuries—including broken bones, punctured lungs, internal bleeding and bruising, and torn tendons, ligaments, and muscles—suffered by many of the surviving animals.
Calgary Reviews | cc by 2.0
As Bob tells the Stampede sponsors, "Surely no one would be cheering a nine-day display of violence if the terrified horses and calves were cats and dogs. I hope you will agree that no animal deserves to suffer like this in the name of a tradition that should have died out with the covered wagon's last ride."
Please join PETA and Bob Barker in telling the producer of The Price Is Right never again to offer trips to SeaWorld or the Calgary Stampede as prizes.
Written by PETA
It was a landmark day in the U.S. District Court in San Diego today. For the first time ever, a federal court is considering whether or not the 13th Amendment, which prohibits slavery, applies to five orcas—Tilikum, Katina, Kasatka, Ulises and Corky—who are now incarcerated at SeaWorld amusement parks. PETA, three marine-mammal experts, and two former SeaWorld trainers filed the suit in the orcas' behalf in October. SeaWorld filed a motion to dismiss the case—but that didn't happen today. Instead, Judge Jeffrey Miller said he will consider the case and will issue a ruling at a later date.
For a full hour, Judge Miller asked thoughtful questions of both sides and listened as Jeff Kerr, general counsel to PETA, spoke in behalf of the orca plaintiffs.
"It's a new frontier in civil rights," Kerr said in his summary of the case. Slavery does not depend on the species of the slave any more than it depends on race, gender, or ethnicity, he argued. "Coercion, degradation, and subjugation characterize slavery, and these orcas have endured all three."
We couldn't agree more.
In the aerial view of SeaWorld, one can see how little room orcas have. Inside the circle is Tilikum, whose nose and tail almost touch the ends of his tank. Image © 2011 Google
On the final day of SeaWorld's challenge to its citations imposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), questions abounded about the qualifications of Jeff Andrews, a 15-year SeaWorld veteran who now works at the San Diego Zoo and whom SeaWorld offered as a witness. Andrews was presented as an expert in animal behavior and training and in working safely with large animals. He testified that he primarily learned on the job at SeaWorld and last worked with orcas there in 2001.
When questioned about what he could offer that would differ from previous SeaWorld employees' testimony, Andrews responded only his "position in the park" and his post-SeaWorld experience. He stated that he stays informed of what happens at SeaWorld parks and is called if there is an injury at any of them. He also admitted that he relied entirely on Chuck Tompkins, SeaWorld's corporate curator for zoological operations, for the data and statistics on which he based his opinion.
After a day of direct and cross examination, during which Andrews repeatedly made "expert" statements that were based on others' opinions, his credibility was shredded. Even SeaWorld did not offer Andrews' report, which he had prepared for SeaWorld for the purpose of this hearing and which provided written proof of his flawed methodologies, into evidence.
When questioned about aggressive incidents documented in SeaWorld's monthly recaps, Andrews refused to acknowledge that splitting off routine and thrashing toward a trainer could indicate aggression in Tilikum, laughing at OSHA's attorney for suggesting the possibility and calling the assertion an "uneducated assessment of behavior." Despite using the term "aggressive" repeatedly in his direct testimony and his report, when asked how he defines the term, Andrews responded, "I don't have an operating definition of aggression off the top of my head."
Andrews dismissed the vast majority of behaviors listed as "aggressive tendencies" on Tilikum's behavioral profile, including "mouthing the stage, vocalizations, tightening body posture, banging gates" and "a deep fast swim." Andrews insisted that only lunging toward a trainer could potentially be considered aggressive.
Another notable thing revealed today was an admission by SeaWorld's vice president of veterinary services, Dr. Chris Dold, that about 14 of 20 orcas at SeaWorld have had their teeth drilled after breaking them from biting hard surfaces such as the concrete pools, themselves, and other orcas.
The parties will be submitting final briefs in the coming months, after which the judge will make his decision. But one thing became clear during nine days of testimony: Despite all the deaths, injuries, and other serious incidents that have occurred, SeaWorld employees continue to defend the practice of keeping orcas in tanks and forcing them to perform tricks for the public.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
Returning to the stand on day eight of the hearings regarding SeaWorld's challenge to OSHA rulings against SeaWorld, the company's "curator of animal training," Kelly Flaherty Clark, became visibly angered when government attorney John Black implied that SeaWorld makes substantive changes to its protocols only for PR purposes—rather than to protect trainer safety.
Black pointed out the differences between the responses to the incidents involving Dawn Brancheau and John Sillick and the incident involving Alexis Martinez. The incidents involving Brancheau and Sillick, who was crushed in 1987 when an orca landed on him while the trainer was in the water, both occurred with the public present and resulted in significant media attention and some changes to trainer-orca interactions. In contrast, Martinez's death occurred during a training session in Tenerife, Spain, at the hideous Loro Parque marine park, out of public view, and garnered little media attention on an island where tourism is king and Loro Parque is the big revenue generator. After Martinez's death, trainers at SeaWorld Orlando were pulled from the water for only a single day, and no changes to any training or safety procedures were made.
Entered into evidence were SeaWorld's "monthly recaps," including 60 pages of documents about Tilikum that included the heading "Aggressive Incidents" and detailed an incident in which a trainer lost control of Tilikum during a show. Tilikum started swimming in circles, and when called back, he "thrashed" toward the trainer—which Flaherty Clark demonstrated by showing her teeth. Flaherty Clark dismissed the recaps as "irrelevant." To whom?
Flaherty Clark was also questioned about a 1997 incident at the now-defunct SeaWorld Ohio in which trainer Kristine Van Oss was pulled into the water by her sweatshirt. The resulting incident report stated: "We hope that you plan to eventually desensitize all killer whales to work with you regardless of what you're wearing. You can't guarantee hair, apparel, or objects will never be within reach, so it's better to address the problem." Tilikum pulled Dawn Brancheau into the tank by her ponytail.
Flaherty Clark confirmed that until Dawn Brancheau's death, every time trainers were pulled from the water following a serious incident, they were allowed back in. And every single time, another incident or injury occurred.
When asked how water work is educational for audiences, a claim that SeaWorld makes because an educational purpose is required for the company to retain its federal permits to hold orcas, Flaherty Clark could not provide any information. No surprise.
Stay tuned.
After its request to dismiss the OSHA case against it was rejected, SeaWorld called its first witness, Jenny Mairot, the supervisor of animal training at the Orlando park. Mairot started at SeaWorld a year after graduating from high school and has never received formal training as an animal behaviorist or trainer outside the organization. Despite being Dawn Brancheau's partner at the time of her death, Mairot testified cheerfully, laughing loudly and often during her testimony.
Mairot described Tilikum—the orca who killed Brancheau (and two others)—as "the most congenial, easygoing, and predictable" of the three adult male orcas she has worked with. She called Brancheau's death "tragic, but it was not unpredictable" and said that SeaWorld employees "were well aware of what would happen if someone fell into the pool with [Tilikum]."
OSHA's attorney stressed that SeaWorld turned a blind eye to safety and allowed its trainers to be in harm's way just for show by "writing incident reports, sending them around, and patting themselves on the back."
Mairot blamed trainer Alexis Martinez's death on "layers of mistakes" and said that when she watches video footage of the incident, "Keto [the whale who killed Martinez] wasn't even that bad." She stressed that the trainers at Loro Parque are "raw" and that the orcas are all young males. Mairot failed to note that Loro Parque staffers were trained by SeaWorld trainers and that the orcas were all provided for and placed in the facility by SeaWorld. SeaWorld Orlando trainers stopped water work for only a single day after Martinez's death, and no substantive changes were made to their protocols.
The next witness, Kelly Flaherty Clark, is the curator of animal training at SeaWorld Orlando. Flaherty Clark agreed with Mairot that the trainers were at fault for Martinez's death. Flaherty Clark lamented the fact that non-SeaWorld staffers were allowed to review incident reports since they don't understand "our craft." When asked who incident reports were meant for, Flaherty-Clark replied, "Certainly not a lawyer or the courtroom."
More to come.
After a fall recess, SeaWorld is back in court to resume its fight against a citation imposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which found that the theme park exposed its employees to serious risks after trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed by the orca Tilikum last year.
SeaWorld repeatedly tried to prevent the day's witnesses from testifying. The first witness, Ken Peters, is the assistant curator of animal training at SeaWorld San Diego. During a 1999 show, Peters was attacked by an orca named Kasatka. After the orca tried to grab Peters' feet and hands, SeaWorld described the near tragedy as an "unfortunate incident" and an "excellent learning tool." Peters acknowledged a "calculated risk of dying tomorrow"—which almost came true in 2006, when Kasatka, forcibly separated from her baby, grabbed Peters' foot and repeatedly dragged him underwater for extended periods. All water work with this angry orca stopped because of the "intensity" of the incident.
The next witness, Mike Scarpuzzi, is vice president of zoological operations. Scarpuzzi gave short and evasive answers to the government attorney's questions and repeatedly stared at the ceiling before responding to even the simplest yes-or-no questions. He was ultimately designated as a hostile witness by the court.
Scarpuzzi oversaw orca training at Spain's Loro Parque theme park when trainer Alexis Martinez was killed after being rammed and dragged underwater by an orca named Keto—just two months before Dawn Brancheau's death. Although SeaWorld attempted to distance itself from this park and attack its credibility, a SeaWorld trainer, Brian Rokeach, was stationed at Loro Parque to supervise animal training, and all decisions about animal care and training were made in conjunction with the three SeaWorld parks and SeaWorld's corporate headquarters.
Although he was the supervisor, Scarpuzzi testified that he didn't know (or ask about) the details surrounding Martinez's death other than being told by Rokeach that he "didn't make it." Telling Rokeach to "take care of it," Scarpuzzi took no other action or offered any measure of support until he arrived on site the next day. He said SeaWorld had concluded that "a combination of relatively commonplace and minor occurrences" caused the trainer's death. Water work with orcas was suspended for less than a week after Martinez's death, and no additional protocols or safety measures were adopted.
Rokeach closed out the day's proceedings by admitting that SeaWorld's emergency procedures generally are not successful when the killer whales are in an agitated state.
Next Media Animation Limited—the number one source for print and online news in Taiwan and Hong Kong—posted to YouTube its own oddly compelling spin on PETA's lawsuit against SeaWorld. Enjoy:
Please post this great piece on your Facebook page and Twitter account and ask every parent and grandparent you know never to buy a ticket to SeaWorld.
Let us introduce you to the five orcas forced to perform at SeaWorld parks who are at the center of the lawsuit PETA filed today maintaining that they are being held as slaves in violation of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
But first, please take a moment to watch this video footage, which shows orcas swimming freely in the wild—as they are meant to do—followed by their traumatic capture. When they are ripped away from their families, these sensitive, intelligent animals cry and fight for their freedom—and they are affected by their ordeal for the rest of their lives.
In the wild, orcas are typically always in motion, even when they are resting. They travel up to 100 miles every day and spend up to 90 percent of their time under the water's surface—something that's nearly impossible to do at SeaWorld, where only two of the seven tanks are as deep as an orca is long.
Orcas are among the most social animals on the planet and naturally spend their entire lives in close-knit communities, enjoying their own cultures and dialects. They are also sound-oriented animals; sound is their primary sense. When we capture them and put them in concrete boxes, we take away the two most important things in their lives: their families and the world of sound.
Here are the tragic stories of the five orcas who are suing SeaWorld:
Tilikum was captured from his home and family off the coast of Iceland when he was just 2 years old and sold to SeaWorld in 1992. Faced with calls to free him, SeaWorld urged the Icelandic government not to return him to Icelandic waters and prevented his release.
You likely remember Tilikum because he's the orca who last year turned his aggression and frustration on his trainer and killed her—the third person he's killed during his years of confinement and chronic pain.
For a year after the attack, Tilikum was punished with total isolation from other orcas, with much of that time spent in a concrete tank just 2 feet longer than he is.
Tilikum no longer has teeth on his bottom jaw as a result of continually gnawing at the steel gates between enclosures. His teeth are now broken, leaving the pulp exposed and resulting in chronic pain. Tilikum is being driven insane by the unmitigated monotony of his existence.
Tilikum is now the primary stud in SeaWorld's orca-breeding mill. His sperm has been used to produce some two-thirds of all orcas born at the theme parks. He's been trained to roll over and present his penis to trainers who masturbate him repeatedly to collect his sperm for breeding.
In October 1978, 2-year-old baby Katina and her 1-year-old pod mate, Kasatka, were captured by hunters off the coast of Iceland and sold to SeaWorld San Diego in 1979. In the fall of 1984, the two were separated when Katina was shipped to SeaWorld Orlando, where she remains today.
Katina was forced to breed when only 9 years old, much younger than orcas breed in nature. Since then, she's been used as a virtual breeding machine, delivering six more calves and even being inbred with one of her sons.
Like Tilikum, many of Katina's teeth are missing as a result of her stress-induced chewing on the tank grids.
Kasatka has been at SeaWorld for three decades and has been forced to perform as many as eight shows a day.
Ulises was ripped from his ocean home in 1980, when he was 3 years old. He's been at SeaWorld San Diego for nearly two decades, where he's suffered injuries and stress from being bullied by incompatible tank mates.
Corky was kidnapped from her family in 1969 when she was only 3. She has endured the longest captivity of any wild-captured orca, enslaved for more than 40 years.
Corky has suffered seven forced pregnancies (she was continuously pregnant for almost 10 years from 1977 to 1986), and none of her calves survived more than 46 days. Her last stillborn fetus was found at the bottom of her holding tank.
She is reportedly blind in her left eye, and her upper and lower teeth are worn and decayed.
It's time to end the slavery of orcas who are denied everything that is natural and important to them, exploited as breeding machines, and forced to perform for SeaWorld's profit. The public is ready, the orcas are definitely ready, and PETA believes that the law is on our side.
Let the Blackstone Group (which owns SeaWorld) know that its days of keeping animals in tanks for profit are numbered. Please click here to e-mail them today!
In the first case of its kind, PETA, three marine-mammal experts, and two former orca trainers are filing a lawsuit asking a federal court to declare that five wild-caught orcas forced to perform at SeaWorld are being held as slaves in violation of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The filing—the first ever seeking to apply the 13th Amendment to nonhuman animals—names the five orcas as plaintiffs and also seeks their release to their natural habitats or seaside sanctuaries.
The suit is based on the plain text of the 13th Amendment, which prohibits the condition of slavery without reference to "person" or any particular class of victim. "Slavery is slavery, and it does not depend on the species of the slave any more than it depends on gender, race, or religion," says general counsel to PETA, Jeffrey Kerr.
The five wild-captured orca plaintiffs are Tilikum and Katina (both confined at SeaWorld Orlando) and Kasatka, Corky, and Ulises (all three confined at SeaWorld San Diego).
"All five of these orcas were violently seized from the ocean and taken from their families as babies. They are denied freedom and everything else that is natural and important to them while kept in small concrete tanks and reduced to performing stupid tricks," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "The 13th Amendment prohibits slavery, and these orcas are, by definition, slaves."
Orcas are intelligent animals who, in the wild, work cooperatively, form complex relationships, communicate using distinct dialects, and swim up to 100 miles every day. At SeaWorld, they are forced to swim in circles in small, barren concrete tanks. Deprived of the opportunity to make conscious choices and to practice their cultural vocal, social, and foraging traditions, they are compelled to perform meaningless tricks for a reward of dead fish.
Our understanding of animals grows every day. Animals are no longer regarded as "things" to dominate, but as breathing, feeling beings with families, dialects, intellect, and emotions. Just as we look back with shame at a time when we enslaved other humans and viewed some people as property less deserving of protection and consideration, we will look back on our treatment of these animals with shame. The 13th Amendment exists to abolish slavery in all its forms—and this lawsuit is the next step.
The orcas are represented in the suit by what the law refers to as their "next friends": PETA, Ric O'Barry (a former orca and dolphin trainer and the star of the Academy Award–winning documentary The Cove), renowned marine biologist and orca expert Dr. Ingrid N. Visser, Orca Network founder Howard Garrett, and former SeaWorld trainers Samantha Berg and Carol Ray.
The groundbreaking suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego.
Please help animals imprisoned by SeaWorld today. Click here to write to The Blackstone Group—the company that owns SeaWorld—and ask that it immediately set in place a firm and rapid plan to release the animals to sanctuaries that can provide them with an appropriate and more natural environment.
Update: While SeaWorld's hearing is in recess, PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk is giving the park some great reasons to use the time to evaluate how to get out of the captive-animal business. Read what she has to say here.
The following was posted September 24, 2011
SeaWorld's appeal has been adjourned until November, but on Friday, Dr. David Duffus—who had served as the foreperson of the coroner's inquest into the death of trainer Keltie Byrne after she was pulled into the water and drowned by Tilikum and two other orcas in 1991—again took the stand. Dr. Duffus testified that no method of training can control orca behavior and that current safety measures aren't effective. "Twenty years later, a lot has been done, yet I'm reading the same outcome," he said. Dr. Duffus added that given his knowledge of orcas and the incidents involving the animals in captivity, there was "no way on Earth" that he would place himself in immediate contact with Tilikum, nor would he get close to any other orca because of his "great deal of respect for the fundamental nature of large predators."
The final witness called before the hearing was adjourned until mid-November was Les Grove, area director of the Tampa office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which conducted the investigation into Dawn Brancheau's death and issued the citation at issue in this case. Asked why SeaWorld was cited for a "willful" violation—which entails an employer's "plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health"—Grove mentioned the "Tilly Talk," the 100-plus incidents that have occurred at SeaWorld parks, interviews with management, and training manuals that show the company was aware that working in close contact with orcas was risky. During the investigation, he added, "It became obvious Tilikum wasn't the only problem."
We'll give you further updates when the appeal resumes in November, but for the orcas, the other dolphins, and the people endangered by SeaWorld's indifference, there's no time to lose—tell SeaWorld today that the place for these amazing animals is in a sanctuary, not doing stupid tricks for tourists.
Minette Layne | cc by 2.0
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