Sir Andy Murray Urges TUI to Stop Selling Tickets to SeaWorld
Over 90,000 people have joined PETA and our affiliates in calling on travel provider TUI to stop promoting and selling tickets to SeaWorld – the world‘s most notorious marine park – and now, Sir Andy Murray is among them!
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The tennis star recently penned a letter to tennis fan and TUI CEO Friedrich Joussen, urging him to do the right thing for animals and stop promoting the abuse of orcas.
As well as his three Grand Slam wins, Andy is known for his love of animals and frequently uses his platform to speak up for them.
“We should have a duty to animals purely as citizens of the world. Animals are alive – it‘s as simple as that,“ he once shared. “And life, whoever‘s it is, should be treated with much more kindness than we so often grant it.“
Andy isn‘t the only one who knows all too well that SeaWorld‘s treatment of animals is unacceptable. In recent months, both Virgin Holidays and British Airways have cut ties with the marine park, refusing to be associated with its cruelty. And as Thomas Cook announced in 2018 that it would stop selling tickets to such facilities, TUI is standing out for all the wrong reasons.
Orcas are large, far-ranging animals who are inherently unsuited to captivity. In the open ocean – where they belong – they swim up to 140 miles every day, a distance they can‘t come close to experiencing when held in cramped tanks. With no opportunity to explore, find food, socialise, or do anything else that comes naturally to them, captive cetaceans grow frustrated and despondent.
What‘s more, orcas are acoustically orientated – meaning that they use clicks, whistles, and echolocation to understand their surroundings. In marine parks such as SeaWorld, however, their sonar reverberates off the concrete walls of the tanks – driving many of them insane. World-renowned oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau has likened the plight of captive orcas to that of “a human blindfolded in a prison cell“.
Andy joins an ever-growing list of influential figures who are urging TUI to do the right thing. Last Christmas, Sharon Osbourne put the CEO on her “naughty“ list and sent him a sack of coal, along with a note reminding him, “The orcas in SeaWorld‘s concrete prisons won‘t have a Merry Christmas.“
We won‘t stop working until every orca and every dolphin currently trapped inside a miserable tank is swimming free. We hope you‘ll join us.
What You Can Do for Orcas in Captivity
If you haven’t already done so, please contact TUI and urge it to stop selling tickets to SeaWorld and other facilities that hold orcas captive for human amusement.
If you’re interested in taking part in demonstrations for this campaign or others like it, please join our Action Team today.
