PETA Statement: Beluga’s Death Demonstrates Need to End Beluga-Breeding Program

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Rachel Mathews regarding the death of Miki, a beluga whale on loan from Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut:

If the Shedd Aquarium had truly cared about or respected this young beluga one bit, he never would have been bred into a life of captivity and deprivation. Trapping an endangered animal inside a concrete box does nothing for belugas in the wild. At a time when SeaWorld has ended its orca-breeding program and the National Aquarium is planning to move the dolphins there to a sanctuary, PETA is calling on the Shedd Aquarium to stop talking about mourning, love, and loss and actually do something—stop warehousing animals and start retiring them to coastal sanctuaries.

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment.” For more information, please visit PETA.org.