Fantastic News! Jet2holidays to Stop Selling Tickets to Marine Parks
Update (26 March 2024): Victory! Jet2holidays Stops Selling Tickets to Marine Parks
Following nearly two years of tireless campaigning by PETA, leading travel provider Jet2holidays announced that it will stop selling tickets to marine parks – venues that confine highly intelligent orcas and other dolphins and whales in the name of entertainment.
PETA’s intense campaign included demonstrations at the company’s annual meetings and across the country; more than 100,000 protest letters from compassionate members of the public, scientists, conservationists, and organisations which specialise in cetacean welfare; and support from celebrities such as Morrissey, Faye Winter, Olivia Bowen, and Belle Hassan. Scroll down to see some of the top actions!
Jet2holidays made the right call to cut ties with parks that confine orcas and other dolphins to concrete tanks that are to them the size of bathtubs and force them to perform circus-like stunts for human entertainment. It joins a long list of leading companies, including easyJet holidays, Expedia, Thomas Cook, British Airways Holidays, Virgin Atlantic Holidays, and Club Med, which have long since ended the promotion of dolphin prisons. All eyes are now on TUI, which must follow Jet2holidays’ lead and immediately end the financial lifeline it provides these cruel abusement parks.
Update (12 January 2024): PETA Disrupts Jet2holidays at the Globe Travel Awards
At the Globe Travel Awards ceremony, a PETA supporter stormed the stage as it was filled with Jet2holidays executives and unfurled a sign shaming the company for its ties to orca abuse.
Tonight at the #GlobeTravelAwards, amidst a sea of confetti, our plea was for the animals trapped in marine parks. @Jet2tweets, it's time to drop these cruel attractions. #JetHelldays pic.twitter.com/aGcGMsZvuE
— PETA UK (@PETAUK) January 11, 2024
Protesters outside the venue held illuminated signs for the world to see – including attendees arriving at the travel awards.
Update (30 October 2023): Olivia Bowen and Belle Hassan Urge Jet2holidays to Break Up With Marine Parks
Love Island’s Olivia Bowen and Belle Hassan have called out Jet2holidays in a new video for PETA. The stars urged the ITV dating show’s sponsor to couple up with compassion and stop selling tickets to marine parks that exploit orcas and other dolphins.
Update (24 October 2023):
PETA and more than half a dozen scientists, conservationists, and organisations who specialise in cetacean welfare have fired off a letter to Jet2holidays CEO Steve Heapy.
The experts are calling him out for “failing to take a stand against animal suffering” as Jet2holidays continues to sell tickets to marine abusement parks that keep orcas and other dolphins captive.
The letter asks Mr Heapy to spare a thought for individuals like Moana the orca, who died this week at a facility promoted by Jet2holidays. Moana spent his short life in a filthy dolphinarium tank at Marineland in France, swimming in endless circles in algae-covered water. He was forced to perform for over a decade before his health declined and he died with discoloured skin and sub-dermal wounds. Jet2holidays must turn its back on the practice of exploiting cetaceans like Moana.
Signee organisations included World Animal Protection, Born Free Foundation, World Cetacean Alliance, Humane Society International/UK, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, and Marine Connection.
“It is impossible for an amusement park to provide captive cetaceans with a life comparable to that which these far-ranging marine mammals would experience in nature.”
– Letter to Steve Heapy
Update (5 October 2023):
Former Orca Trainer Speaks Out in Letter to Jet2holidays
In a plea to put compassion before profit, former senior orca trainer – and The New York Times best-selling author – John Hargrove sent an urgent letter to Jet2holidays CEO Steve Heapy.
Hargrove called on Heapy to ensure the company ends its promotion of attractions that exploit orcas and other dolphins, treating them as “unwilling circus clowns”. The letter points out that “these facilities cause orcas a world of suffering and are not worthy of your support”.
© Melissa HargroveUpdate (7 September 2023): Jet2’s Annual Meeting Flooded With Protesting Orcas
A sea of “orcas” protested outside Jet2’s annual meeting today, calling on the travel provider to drop marine parks that hold cetaceans in tanks for entertainment from its holiday packages.
The annual meeting marks one year since PETA launched its campaign urging Jet2holidays to join other travel providers – including British Airways Holidays and Virgin Atlantic Holidays – in refusing to sell tickets to marine parks.
Update (14 July 2023): From Tank to Tombstone: Chilling ‘Graveyard’ Comes to Manchester
A sombre “graveyard” of 15 “headstones” – one for each orca and bottlenose dolphin who has died at Spanish marine park Loro Parque –was erected in Manchester city centre today.
Featuring a large banner reading, “Marine ABUSEment Parks Kill. Jet2holidays: Drop Them!” PETA protesters urged the travel giant to drop marine parks that keep cetaceans in captivity from all its holiday packages.
Coinciding with World Orca Day (14 July), the action also reminded Mancunions to boycott Jet2holidays – most of Jet2’s flights depart from Manchester – until it does right by animals.
Update (18 November 2022):
‘Love Island’ Star Faye Winter Body-Painted as an Orca Makes a Splash for Animals
Update (21 September 2022): Chained ‘Dolphins’ Protest Watery Prisons at Jet2holidays’ Leeds Office
Shackled and chained “dolphin prisoners” took to the streets outside Jet2holidays’ office in Leeds with signs reading, “Jet2holidays: Stop Supporting Dolphin Prisons” and “Jet2holidays: Drop Marine Abusement Parks”.
Update (1 September 2022): Tidal Wave of PETA Protesters Wants Jet2holidays to Drop Orca Prisons
PETA supporters – including two “orcas” wrapped in chains – gathered outside Jet2’s annual meeting with a clear message: end the promotion of marine abusement parks and ticket sales for facilities exploiting dolphins and whales.
We’ve launched this new campaign with a splash, as Jet2holidays is one of the few remaining travel providers that continues to promote and sell tickets to marine parks despite hearing from us about the extensive history of cetacean suffering and deaths at such facilities.
To ensure officials don’t miss a thing, PETA US is pushing for change from the inside and has become a Jet2 shareholder so that its representative can attend the travel provider’s annual meeting, speak to other shareholders and executives, and openly call for the company to end its promotion of marine parks and ticket sales to the exploitative facilities.
The Miserable Life of Animals in Marine Parks
Orcas and other dolphins are intelligent animals. When kept in marine parks, they suffer from social, physical, and psychological stress. Intense confinement causes frustration, resulting in abnormal behaviour, and they often break their teeth by gnawing at the sides of their tanks.
In nature, orcas form complex relationships, work cooperatively to find food, and can traverse up to 150 miles of ocean every day. However, those at marine parks are housed in incompatible groups in cramped concrete tanks – which can be 10,000 times smaller than their natural home range.
Kept in concrete prisons for decades and forced to perform confusing tricks for tourists, the majority of captive orcas die far short of their natural life expectancy.
The Tide Is Turning on Marine Parks
Leading travel providers such as Thomas Cook, Virgin Atlantic Holidays, and British Airways Holidays have already cut ties with facilities that keep orcas and other dolphins in watery prisons.
Ticket Sales Fuel Cruelty to Cetaceans
Marine parks are only able to continue confining animals to cramped tanks as long they sell tickets. Don’t give facilities like these a lifeline – visit animal-free attractions instead.
