‘Santa Claus’ Is Coming to Town—for PETA’s SeaWorld Protest
For Immediate Release:
December 18, 2020
Just ahead of Christmas, “Santa Claus” is making a pit stop at SeaWorld to lead PETA supporters in a rousing protest of the abusement park, complete with an activist in a dolphin costume and signs proclaiming, “SeaWorld Is Ho Ho Ho-rrible for Animals.”
When: Sunday, December 20, 10 a.m.
Where: SeaWorld, 7007 Sea World Dr., Orlando
“There’s no comfort, joy, or peace on Earth for the animals exploited day in and day out at SeaWorld,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is urging kind people to steer clear of this abusement park until it has the goodwill to send the animals in its custody to seaside sanctuaries.”
Wild dolphins swim up to 60 miles a day, dive to depths of nearly 1,500 feet, and maintain dynamic relationships within a large social network. But those at SeaWorld are packed into shallow tanks in which they can’t escape attacks from other frustrated, aggressive dolphins. At all three parks, they have been observed with open wounds and extensive scarring on their faces and bodies. They’re also forcibly bred, sometimes after being drugged.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—has named SeaWorld one of 2020’s naughtiest companies. Earlier this month, the group urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate a PETA veterinarian’s allegations that the company is permitting visitors to have direct contact with animals, putting them at risk of contracting the virus that causes COVID-19 and developing other deadly diseases.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
