Objection! PETA Issues Legal Challenge Over City’s Sell-Out Settlement to SeaWorld

Deal Set to Give SeaWorld Millions Owed to San Diego Taxpayers, Plus Free Marketing for the Beleaguered Company

For Immediate Release:
January 13, 2025

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Today, PETA lawyers filed a formal objection in the United States District Court of the Southern District of California to the City of San Diego’s proposed settlement with SeaWorld, under which the City is set to forfeit millions of dollars in unpaid rent it is owed by the company in exchange for SeaWorld admission coupons.

The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by the City against SeaWorld in September 2023 that sought to recover more than $12 million in unpaid rent, late fees, audit costs, and interest from the abusement park. Under the terms of the agreement, SeaWorld—a billion-dollar private enterprise that has come under fire for its confinement and history of violent captures of ocean-going mammals—would pay the City only $8.8 million and apparently offset the approximately $3.4 million shortfall by providing season passes and/or free admission to teachers, active-duty military and veterans, and local school districts.

PETA’s objection—filed on behalf of itself and its more than 6,000 members and supporters in San Diego—notes that these proposed terms represent a veritable financial windfall and free advertising for SeaWorld, as well as the opportunity to sell concessions to this influx of visitors, and the settlement is especially indefensible given that Mayor Todd Gloria recently blamed a severe budget deficit for what he anticipates will be a “difficult” upcoming budget process with painful cuts, including hiring freezes and halting the Civic Center Revitalization process.

PETA also objects to the settlement on the grounds that the recipients purportedly “benefitting” from the free admission would be impressionable children who would see this as a City-endorsed and -approved activity, contrary to widespread public criticism of the corporation and that the state legislature sought to ban SeaWorld from breeding of orcas (later passed as the Orca Protection Act), as well as public pressure that was exerted to stop the company from capturing orcas in the wild and handlers from standing on dolphins’ sensitive rostrums and riding on their backs and as if they were surfboards. SeaWorld San Diego’s business model teaches visitors that it’s acceptable to imprison animals, deprive them of freedom of movement and adequate veterinary care, and watch them go insane from frustration and loneliness, wearing down their teeth from chewing on bars, being artificially inseminated, and injuring themselves fighting due to improper grouping and stress.

“The City of San Diego has bowed to SeaWorld and approved a raw deal for animals and taxpayers,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “The marine mammals imprisoned at SeaWorld should be getting ‘free admission’ out of there, and PETA advises San Diego residents to contact their councilmembers and urge them to roundly reject this spineless settlement.”

Orca populations all over the world have unique cultures marked by distinct dialects, foraging techniques, social structures, and customs. At SeaWorld, these intelligent animals are often held captive with other orcas who are incompatible, and they are forced to spend their days swimming in endless circles in tiny concrete tanks. Corky, the longest-held captive orca in the world, currently languishes at SeaWorld San Diego after being torn from her family off the coast of British Columbia in 1969.

PETA urgently requests that city officials make the settlement as it currently stands available to the public in full and that they allow an opportunity for public comment and revisions before the terms are finalized.

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.