Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Faces Uproar as PETA Kicks Off Multi-City ‘Free the Dolphins’ Campaign

For Immediate Release:
June 16, 2026

Contact:
Andrew Grant 202-483-7382

“Dolphins Suffer Here!” That’s the message PETA supporters will display on massive, dolphin-shaped signs as they descend on Six Flags Discovery Kingdom on Thursday as part of PETA’s Free the Dolphins campaign—a nationwide initiative that will also hit marine parks across the country in coordinated rallies on the same day.

PETA wants people to know that at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, dolphins like Merlin—who was abducted from the Gulf of Mexico in 1989—have spent decades confined to tiny, barren concrete tanks. The park forces dolphins to perform in regular shows—during which they may endure trainers standing on their faces and grabbing onto their fins—and subjects them to harmful, intrusive hands-on encounters with visitors in its “swim with dolphins” program.

“At Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, dolphins are condemned to a lifetime of misery, circling the same barren spaces and enduring the chaos of loud shows and grabbing hands day in and day out,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “From coast to coast, PETA is calling on marine abusement parks to release these animals to seaside sanctuaries, where they could finally have some semblance of a natural life.”

Where:           Outside Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (near the ticketing gate), 1001 Fairgrounds Dr., Vallejo. Please see the Google Maps link here.

When:             Thursday, June 18, 12 noon

Why:               In nature, dolphins maintain dynamic relationships with large social networks and can swim up to 60 miles a day. But at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, they’re denied everything that’s natural and important to them and housed in tanks so cramped and shallow that they can do little more than float listlessly or swim in endless circles. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom’s lengthy history of violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act includes a critical citation for the role of poor water quality in the deaths of two young dolphins.

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 Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.