Surfer Kelly Slater Prevented From Submitting Question During SeaWorld Meeting

Today, SeaWorld showed just how worried it is about public criticism, and prevented PETA and world surfing champion Kelly Slater from submitting PETA’s shareholder question during SeaWorld’s online meeting, which should not have happened, as PETA owns a stake in the company. A statement from PETA Foundation Director of Animal Law Jared Goodman follows:

Kelly Slater, on PETA’s behalf, planned to point out to shareholders that if SeaWorld cared about orcas, as it likes to claim, it would stop its disgusting and unnatural inbreeding program and turn its tawdry abusement parks into coastal sanctuaries. In sea pens, orcas could swim in ocean water instead of in chemically treated waste water, hear and answer the calls of their extended families, and begin to live truly as orcas in a protected area of the ocean. PETA will push SeaWorld to make this change, and we’re exploring our legal options over SeaWorld’s lock-out of dissenting voices who speak for the animals they hold prisoner.

Kelly Slater spoke up on Facebook, posting the text of his statement to his 1.5 million fans: