P!nk Questions SeaWorld Executives on PETA US’ Behalf at Annual Meeting

For Immediate Release:

14 June 2018

Contact:

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

P!NK QUESTIONS SEAWORLD EXECUTIVES ON PETA US’ BEHALF AT ANNUAL MEETING

Singer Urges Sinking Marine Park to Send Orcas to Seaside Sanctuaries

London – Grammy winner P!nk spoke out against SeaWorld during its online annual meeting today by calling on the company to build coastal sanctuaries for the long-suffering orcas it holds captive.

In a question submitted on behalf of PETA US, she wrote, “As a mother, I would never take my kids anywhere that keeps intelligent, sensitive beings in intensive confinement. Children are impressionable, and the last thing I would want to teach my kids is that ‘might makes right’ or that it’s OK to bully and exploit someone just because they look different from us. But that’s exactly what SeaWorld does by locking up animals who, in their ocean homes, would swim up to 140 miles a day, dive to great depths, cooperate with their pods to find food, communicate in their own dialects, and transmit their own culture from generation to generation. At SeaWorld, all these animals are able to do is swim in endless circles. Some are so frustrated that they break their teeth by gnawing on the concrete corners and metal bars of their tiny tanks. But you have a chance to change all that .… When will SeaWorld transfer its orcas and other marine mammals to seaside sanctuaries to save them – and itself?”

PETA US has owned stock in SeaWorld since the company went public in 2013 in order to inform stakeholders of animal-welfare issues and propose policy changes. To date, at least 40 orcas have died at the abusement park and dozens more have been sentenced to miserable lives inside concrete tanks.

In the UK, PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – is calling on the public and businesses such as travel operator Thomas Cook to stop supporting the marine park, especially in light of its recent failed animal-welfare audit.

P!nk has been an active supporter of PETA US for more than 15 years: she helped pressure Ringling Bros circus to close and appeared on a Times Square billboard proclaiming, “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur.” She joins a long list of celebrities – including Amanda Holden, Sharon Osbourne, Noah Cyrus, Paul O’Grady, the late Sir Roger Moore, and many others – who have teamed up with PETA or its international affiliates to speak out against marine-mammal captivity.

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

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