Pro Wrestler and San Diego Native Brie Garcia Slams SeaWorld in New Campaign for PETA
For Immediate Release:
June 10, 2026
Contact:
Hannah Nelson 202-483-7382
Fall in, Bella Army! Ahead of the busy summer tourist season, professional wrestler and San Diego-native Brie Garcia (aka Brie Bella) is stepping into the ring for orcas, dolphins and other marine animals in a new campaign for PETA that spotlights the suffering these thinking, feeling beings endure—sometimes for decades—in SeaWorld’s barren concrete tanks.
“When you look at these huge orcas that are in these tanks, it’s like a human being living in a bathtub for their whole lives,” Garcia says in an accompanying video spot. “These mammals can swim for 150 miles a day. How do you do that in here? You can’t.” PETA points out that in nature, orcas form complex social structures in which up to 30 orcas travel together in pods for their entire lives—but at SeaWorld, they’re often housed with incompatible tankmates, causing stress-induced aggressive behavior, and denied everything that is natural and important to them. “We are miseducating our children when we take them to places like [SeaWorld]. We are telling them that it’s okay for animals to be treated this way,” she says. “Instead, we should be teaching them compassion, seeing them living in their natural habitat with their families.”
On Tuesday, Garcia will take her fight against SeaWorld straight to the marine park’s executives at their virtual annual meeting. On behalf of shareholder PETA, Garcia will call on the company to share when they’ll stop breeding dolphins, and demand that they release them to seaside sanctuaries where they can spend the rest of their lives in peace.
Sixteen orcas are imprisoned across SeaWorld’s San Diego, Orlando, and San Antonio parks. Corky—the longest-held captive orca in the world—currently languishes at SeaWorld San Diego after being taken from her mother and ocean home off the coast of British Columbia in 1969. She was used for years as a breeding machine at another facility, but none of her calves survived past 47 days. Her last pregnancy ended in a miscarriage when her dead baby was found at the bottom of a concrete tank at SeaWorld.
In closing, Garcia shares, “If you ask me about going to SeaWorld, I’m just going to tell you no. Animals are no different than us, and so let’s teach our children that. Always remember to boycott SeaWorld.”
Garcia is part of a long list of celebrities—including Bella Thorne, Joan Jett, Lala Kent, Noah Cyrus, Nikki Glaser, P!nk, and Steve Aoki—who have teamed up with PETA to speak out against marine parks.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kitsfor people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
