Protesters Descend On Massapequa: ‘Say No to SeaQuest!’
Residents Don’t Want Sleazy Aquarium to Set Up Shop
For Immediate Release:
November 9, 2018
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
What: With signs proclaiming, “SeaQuest Is SeaDeath,” members of Long Island Orchestrating for Nature (LION) and PETA will be outside the Westfield Sunrise Mall, a proposed SeaQuest aquarium location, to draw attention to the chain’s history of failing animals and to let it be known that area residents don’t want SeaQuest in their backyard.
When: Saturday, November 10, 12 noon
Where: 1 Sunrise Mall, near Chase Bank, at the intersection of Carmans Road and Sunrise Highway, Massapequa
“SeaQuest has left a trail of animal suffering and death wherever it has opened,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Caring locals, including Massapequa native Alec Baldwin, want Oyster Bay authorities to reject the application to bring this sleazy and cruel operation to town.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—notes that former employees of SeaQuest owner Vince Covino’s aquariums have come forward with allegations of appalling neglect and abuse, including that animals were reportedly starved and routinely denied veterinary care. One former staffer estimates that at least 300 animals died at the SeaQuest Las Vegas location. At the now-closed Portland Aquarium owned by Covino and his brother, Ammon, more than 200 animals reportedly died in just a few months—many allegedly from starvation, infections, and other seemingly preventable causes.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
