Sharon Osbourne Sends a Christmas ‘Gift’ to Travel Giant TUI: a Sack of Coal
It takes a lot to make it onto Sharon Osbourne’s “naughty” list – but TUI Group takes the top spot this Christmas for promoting cruelty to orcas.
Osbourne is sending a sack of coal to the travel provider’s CEO, Friedrich Joussen, along with a note explaining why the pile of sooty rocks will be making its way to the company’s head office:
“The orcas in SeaWorld’s concrete prisons won’t have a Merry Christmas. Instead, they’ll be forced to swim around in endless circles, as they are every single day. That’s why I’m sending you a sack of coal this festive season and am joining my friends at PETA in urging families to keep TUI out of their travel plans and on their ‘naughty’ lists until you join the likes of Thomas Cook and Responsible Travel in cutting ties with this horrid abusement park.”
In their natural habitat, orcas form complex relationships, work cooperatively to find food, and traverse up to 225 kilometres of ocean every day. But those at SeaWorld are housed in incompatible groups in tiny tanks and have even been given the drug diazepam to manage stress-induced aggressive behaviour. Forty-one orcas and numerous other animals have died on SeaWorld’s watch – most far short of their natural life expectancies.
What You Can Do
Earlier this year, following pressure from both PETA and Osbourne, travel giant Thomas Cook announced that it would stop selling tickets to all parks that confine orcas in the name of entertainment.
Over 35,000 people have already written to TUI urging it to do the same. Please join us, and let the company know how disappointed you are that it continues to sell tickets to SeaWorld:
