Team USA Water Polo Captain Tells SeaWorld, ‘Give Orcas the Freedom to Play!’

Tony Azevedo Stars in New PETA Campaign Calling for Orcas to Be Retired to Seaside Sanctuaries

For Immediate Release:
July 28, 2016

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Just in time for his return to his hometown of Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Summer Olympics, U.S. Olympic Water Polo Team Captain Tony Azevedo appears underwater in a new PETA ad that proclaims, “Game Over, SeaWorld. Retire Orcas to Sanctuaries Today.”

“SeaWorld’s tiny tanks are the equivalent of sticking someone like me in a bathtub for life,” says the Olympic silver medalist. “I’m joining PETA in calling on SeaWorld to give these animals a taste of freedom in coastal sanctuaries.”

In nature, orcas dive deep and swim up to 100 miles a day in close-knit family pods. At SeaWorld, orcas spend their entire lives in tiny concrete tanks, where they can only float listlessly, swim in circles, and attack one another until they die—usually far short of their natural life expectancy—from injuries, pneumonia, or other captivity-related causes.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—is calling on consumers to stay away from SeaWorld until the company agrees to release the 29 orcas and hundreds of other animals still trapped in its tanks to seaside sanctuaries.

Azevedo joins a long list of celebrities—including Lily Tomlin, Kate del Castillo, Bob Barker, Jessica Biel, Laura Vandervoort, and Steve-O—who have teamed up with PETA to ask consumers to stay away from SeaWorld.

For more information, please visit PETA’s website SeaWorldOfHurt.com.