Photos: Exeter Locals Urge Thomas Cook to Sever Ties with Seaworld

For Immediate Release:

18 December 2017

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

PHOTOS: EXETER LOCALS URGE THOMAS COOK TO SEVER TIES WITH SEAWORLD

Demonstration Is Part of PETA’s National Week of Action for Captive Orcas

Exeter – Holding signs proclaiming, “Thomas Cook: Stop Promoting SeaWorld,” a group of local activists stood outside the travel provider’s High Street branch to call on the company to remove the notoriously cruel amusement park from its promotions. The demonstration, coordinated by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), was part of a national week of action during which similar protests were held in more than 45 locations across the UK.

Photos are also available here and here.

“Profiting from orca abuse is indefensible,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA is calling on Thomas Cook to join STA Travel and Responsible Travel in rejecting SeaWorld’s orca prisons, where intelligent marine mammals have no choice but to swim in endless circles around tiny concrete tanks.”

While orcas in the wild form complex relationships, work cooperatively to find food, and traverse up to 140 miles of ocean every day, those at SeaWorld are housed in incompatible groups inside tiny tanks and have even been given the drug diazepam to manage stress-induced aggressive behaviour. Forty-one orcas have died on SeaWorld’s watch, and six marine mammals have died at its parks this year alone.

Since the launch of the campaign earlier this year, more than people have written to Thomas Cook to urge it to stop promoting SeaWorld. Meanwhile, new figures released at the World Travel Market in London revealed that 79 per cent of British respondents don’t like visiting attractions where animals are forced to perform.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

#