Pro Surfer Kelly Slater to Question SeaWorld at Shareholder Meeting

For Immediate Release:
June 9, 2015

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Tomorrow, world surfing champion Kelly Slater will confront SeaWorld during its online annual meeting by submitting a question on behalf of PETA—which owns stock in the company—in order to educate other stakeholders, propose policy changes, and demand the release of its orcas, who have been enslaved by the company for more than 40 years.

The full text of Slater’s question for SeaWorld on behalf of PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—follows:

My name is Kelly Slater, and I’m here on behalf of PETA. The veil has been lifted on SeaWorld. All the ads in the world won’t change what the public now knows to be true: that the company imprisons highly intelligent, emotionally complex, social animals in tiny, barren concrete tanks, which leads to aggression and disease. SeaWorld is experiencing declining attendance and revenue, and dozens of companies, including Southwest Airlines, Panama Jack, and Mattel, have recently ended partnerships with SeaWorld. As a professional surfer, I’m lucky and privileged to be able to spend the majority of my time in the ocean—it’s the place where I feel most at home, and thus, I feel an obligation to protect that which I have a voice in influencing. Please, tell us, when will SeaWorld allow the animals it holds captive to return to their home—the ocean—by retiring them to a seaside sanctuary? And wouldn’t this at least be viewed, if nothing else, as a public relations win for you? By righting the wrongs you have committed in the name of corporate profit for so many years, you may actually be able to recoup some of the respect that has been lost in the eyes of the public and work toward an end to the problem of animal suffering. Thank you.

For more information, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com.