PETA Protest: ‘Orcas’ Speak Out Against Marine Park Captivity
As ABTA hosted its annual flagship Travel Convention in Canary Warf, London, attendees faced a tidal wave of commotion outside the building.
PETA “orcas” in chains and supporters with signs demanded that the travel trade association discourage the promotion of cruel marine parks.
Why Is PETA Campaigning Against ABTA?
The organisation rightly advises its members not to promote tourist activities such as bullfighting and elephant rides – but it doesn’t take a stand against dolphin and whale captivity.
Today’s holidaymakers object to seeing nature-starved orcas swim listlessly in tanks, and the travel industry has caught on.
Travel giants Tripadvisor, Virgin Holidays, and British Airways Holidays refuse to promote facilities that imprison orcas, yet ABTA lags behind, doing nothing to prevent members such as TUI from profiting from ticket sales to venues that confine these sensitive, intelligent animals to small concrete tanks.
SeaWorld and Other Marine Parks Suck
Dolphins and whales don’t belong in marine parks. They are kidnapped from their homes and forced to live in cramped enclosures and to perform confusing tricks to entertain the public. With no physical, psychological, or emotional stimulation, they spend their days swimming in endless circles.
Orcas are left to languish in concrete tanks about 10,000 times smaller than their natural home range. They may also be drugged with diazepam and other tranquilisers. At SeaWorld, 140 dolphins are packed into just seven tanks (as counted in February 2019). Their water is chemically treated, and they’re forced to perform confusing tricks. Life in a marine park is no life at all.
Help Dolphins and Whales
Join PETA’s campaign to urge ABTA to revise its animal welfare guidelines and add promoting captive cetacean tourist destinations to its list of unacceptable practices:
