Photos: See Thelwall Junior School Kids’ Award-Winning Anti-SeaWorld Letters

 

For Immediate Release:

5 May 2016

Contact:

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

PHOTOS: SEE THELWALL JUNIOR SCHOOL KIDS’ AWARD-WINNING ANTI-SEAWORLD LETTERS

PETA Honours Students for Their Persuasive Messages Calling on Public to Help Captive Whales

Warrington – Courtesy of PETA, students in Class 4 at the Thelwall Community Junior School in Warrington received a Compassionate Action Award for writing letters to raise awareness of the suffering of captive orcas at SeaWorld (sample letters are available here and here). The children’s teacher, Rosie O’Hara, let them choose a real-life topic for their persuasive writing lesson – and, through their own research, the students were shocked to discover that captive orcas are kept in tiny barren tanks and endure years of illness and stress before a premature death. Their letters include hand-drawn illustrations and urge the public to join PETA in calling for the release of the captive orcas to seaside sanctuaries.

Thelwall 2

“Please stop whalenapping these creatures”, pleads one student. “SeaWorld gives customers more room to park than they give orcas to live. This is horrific!” writes another, while a third poignantly asks, “Doesn’t it break your heart that orcas die at the age [of] 13 when in the wild they live for 30 years?”

“Kids naturally love animals and are eager to call for orcas’ freedom once they learn how these sensitive beings suffer in captivity”, says PETA UK Director Mimi Bekhechi. “We’re grateful that these kind students are spreading the message that orcas belong in their ocean homes – not in captivity.”

As the children’s letters vividly describe, the sensitive, intelligent marine mammals who are imprisoned at marine parks like SeaWorld are denied the intricate social relationships and daily 100-mile ocean journeys they would experience in the wild. Housed in tiny concrete tanks, captive orcas swim in endless circles and often break their teeth from gnawing on metal tank bars out of stress and boredom. PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – continues to urge all marine parks to retire their long-suffering orcas to seaside sanctuaries.

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

#