PETA Lawsuit: Stingray Deaths Cover-Up Gets Green Light

For Immediate Release:
September 24, 2020

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Brookfield, Ill. –

PETA’s legal action to seek records regarding the deaths of 54 stingrays at Brookfield Zoo—in an exhibit in partnership with SeaWorld—will move forward, thanks to this week’s court ruling denying a motion to dismiss PETA’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Below, please find a statement from PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Jared Goodman:

The court agrees: Cook County cannot shield Brookfield Zoo’s records from public scrutiny by outsourcing the operation of its public enterprise to a private corporation. PETA will now go full steam ahead with efforts to uncover the extent to which the zoo is in bed with the notoriously problematic SeaWorld—and why more than 50 stingrays endured miserable deaths in what is believed to have been a malfunctioning tank.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. More information about the group’s lawsuit is available here.