SeaWorld Faces Uproar as PETA Kicks Off Multi-City ‘Free the Dolphins’ Campaign
For Immediate Release:
June 16, 2026
Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
“Dolphins Suffer Here!” That’s the message PETA supporters will display on large, dolphin-shaped signs as they descend on SeaWorld on Thursday as part of PETA’s Free the Dolphins campaign—a nationwide initiative that will also hit SeaWorld Orlando’s Discovery Cove and other marine parks across the country in coordinated rallies on the same day.
PETA wants people to know that more than 500 dolphins and whales have died at SeaWorld parks, including in San Antonio—and that the company replaces them through its breeding program, in which dolphins are sexually manipulated and sometimes drugged so they can’t fight back when forcibly impregnated.
“SeaWorld knows that no tank could ever meet dolphins’ complex needs, yet continues to forcibly breed them, creating generation after generation of suffering animals, depriving them of a real life just to make a buck,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “From coast to coast, PETA is calling on marine abusement parks to end this cruel cycle and release these animals to seaside sanctuaries, where they could finally have some semblance of a natural life.”
Where: Outside SeaWorld, 10500 SeaWorld Dr. (at the intersection of Westover Hills Boulevard and N. Ellison Drive), San Antonio
When: Thursday, June 18, 12 noon
Why: In nature, dolphins maintain dynamic relationships with large social networks and can swim up to 60 miles a day. But at SeaWorld, they’re crammed into tiny artificial tanks and repeatedly touched, grabbed, and held onto by strangers with no way to escape. Victims of the company’s breeding program include Puka—who gave birth to nine calves, seven of whom are already dead—and her daughter Ripley, who was bred twice and suffered miscarriages both times.
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.
