Whistleblower Tips Prompt PETA to Push for Probe Into Young Orca’s Death

For Immediate Release:
August 20, 2021

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Last night, when SeaWorld confirmed that 6-year-old orca Amaya had died, PETA had already filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture this week requesting an investigation after receiving two whistleblower reports about an incident that may have caused this death. Below, please find a statement from PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman:

If the whistleblower reports that PETA received are true, orca Amaya died just days after SeaWorld workers put all 10 orcas into a single tank, despite a documented history of aggression among some of them—leading Amaya to chase, rake, and injure the much older orca Corky, who may have retaliated overnight. PETA is demanding a full outside investigation into whether SeaWorld’s incompetence left Corky injured and Amara dead at just 6 years old.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.