PETA Becomes Blackstone Group Partner in Effort to End Orca Shows at SeaWorld

Killer Whales Have Had Enough and Need to Be Released From Marine Slavery, Says Group

For Immediate Release:
March 23, 2010

Contact:
Lisa Wathne 757-622-7382

New York -- PETA has purchased common units in equity firm and SeaWorld owner The Blackstone Group--a limited partnership--in order to meet the legal requirement that allows PETA to call for an end to killer whale (orca) and other dolphin shows at SeaWorld abusement parks. PETA launched the campaign following a February 24 incident in which an orca fatally attacked a trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando. The killing was the third by this particular male, an animal who has lost most of his teeth attacking the metal bars on the grill of the underwater cage that holds him captive. The Blackstone Group owns the SeaWorld parks in Orlando, San Diego, and San Antonio.

"Knowing what we now know about marine mammals, it's long overdue for Blackstone and SeaWorld to let them live in peace with their families in the world's oceans, where they belong," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Depriving these intelligent animals of everything that is natural and important to them is deeply cruel--and it can turn them into ticking time bombs."

While Blackstone was in negotiations to purchase the SeaWorld parks from Anheuser-Busch InBev, PETA urged Hamilton James, Blackstone's president, to transfer all the parks' marine mammals to transitional coastal sanctuaries and replace them with state-of-the-art robotic marine mammals if the sale went through.

PETA also warns that the trainer who died in the February incident will not be the last victim as long as the animals remain in captivity and servitude. In the wild, orcas share intricate relationships, and males spend their entire lives with their mothers. Dialects differ from pod to pod, and the animals swim for as many as 100 miles every day. At SeaWorld, orcas continually turn in circles in small, concrete tanks and are forced to perform circus-style tricks for food.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.