A Mother’s Plea: Lala Kent Urges Parents to Stay Away from SeaWorld in Heartfelt PETA Campaign
Vanderpump Rules princess and super-mom Lala Kent is trapped underwater and crying out in frustration in a striking new PETA campaign. Why? To condemn SeaWorld’s monumental legacy of cruelty. The reality TV star is calling attention to SeaWorld’s history of separating highly social, emotional orcas from their loving mothers.
Lala Kent: Mothers Against SeaWorld
In the heart-wrenching video, the mother of two wells up as she shares how being separated from her children—a nightmare that’s all too real for mother orcas held captive in marine parks—would be “nothing short of someone taking your heart away.”
“Orcas are meant to be in a pod. That is how they thrive,” says a tearful Kent. But she notes that at SeaWorld, “babies were being torn away from their mothers. These mammals swim up to 150 miles a day together, and you’re telling me that we’re going to keep them in a tank for the rest of their lives? It just devastates me because I know what that bond looks like between me and my girls.”
When given the chance, orcas often remain by their mother’s side for their entire lives. In the ocean, they live in close-knit pods, hunting, traveling, and exploring the vast ocean together. Orcas are also empathetic and grieve their lost loved ones. One mother orca garnered national attention when she carried her dead baby through the sea for 17 days.
SeaWorld tore many young orcas from their mothers and shipped them to other abusement parks around the world, often leaving their anguished mothers crying out in distress.
Corky—the longest-held captive orca in the world—is currently trapped at SeaWorld. She was taken from her mother and ocean home off the coast of British Columbia in 1969. A different facility used her as a breeding machine for years, but none of her calves survived longer than 47 days. Her last pregnancy ended in a miscarriage when her dead baby was found at the bottom of a concrete tank at SeaWorld.
“If I had a parent standing in front of me talking about how they’re taking their kid to SeaWorld, my first word would be ‘don’t,’” Kent says. “Don’t go—shut these places down so they don’t exist anymore.”
As a devoted mother, Kent knows that SeaWorld and other marine parks teach children all the wrong lessons—that it’s acceptable to imprison animals, to separate them at will, and to watch them go insane from loneliness and deprivation. That’s why she’s instilled in her daughters that “We do not go to SeaWorld. We do not exploit animals—period.”
Join Lala Kent and Help Us Tank SeaWorld
More than 40 orcas and over 500 other dolphins and whales have died—many prematurely—in SeaWorld’s tiny tanks. Those still held captive there can do little more than swim in endless circles, float listlessly, and lash out at each other in frustration.
YOU can help give Corky and other animals a real future. Please sign the petition below urging SeaWorld to establish a firm and rapid plan to end its use of animals, stop breeding all dolphins and whales, and relocate them to seaside sanctuaries—where they could live in large areas of the ocean while still receiving care from humans.
The tide is changing for SeaWorld, because even its neighbors are ready for change.
Corky still has a chance as long as this clock is ticking—but time is running out. Urge SeaWorld to release her and other orcas to a seaside sanctuary now.
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