SeaQuest’s Successor Wins Cold-Hearted Company Award from PETA
For Immediate Release:
June 17, 2025
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Summer may be heating up, but NorCal Aquarium & Wildlife—formerly SeaQuest Folsom—has just received PETA’s Cold-Hearted Company Award for continuing SeaQuest’s miserable legacy of suffering and exploitation by refusing to improve conditions for the animals in the company’s clutches.
Several species of social parrots, including a macaw, an Eclectus parrot, and a cockatoo, all highly social birds, have been languishing in solitary confinement in sunless cells—when they’re not being displayed near the front desk—at NorCal Aquarium & Wildlife. Multiple birds have shown signs of health issues and psychological distress, including feather loss and feather plucking, and one toucan suffers from an overgrown, misaligned beak. Multiple fish have been seen with wounds, including a channel catfish with facial lesions.
“It takes a cold heart to treat feeling, thinking wild animals as disposable props, and NorCal Aquarium is carrying on SeaQuest’s bad business practices,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA urges families hoping to make happy summer memories to steer clear of this vile place and opt for animal-free entertainment instead.”
In nature, birds fly long distances and engage in complex social interactions within their flocks; sloths, who are nocturnal, naturally sleep up to 20 hours a day and spend the majority of their time alone; and stingrays enjoy foraging for food and burying themselves in the sand. But at NorCal Aquarium & Wildlife, these and other animals are confined indoors and subjected to loud noises and constant human touch, causing them acute and chronic stress.
SeaQuest aquariums had long been plagued by animal welfare issues, animal deaths, legal violations, and injuries to employees and the public from direct contact with animals. In just six years, SeaQuest racked up over 130 U.S. Department of Agriculture citations for failing to meet the bare minimum required under the federal Animal Welfare Act.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kitsfor people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
