Moorfield Primary School Kids’ Award-Winning Anti-Seaworld Letters

For Immediate Release:

21 September 2017

Contact:

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

MOORFIELD PRIMARY SCHOOL KIDS’ AWARD-WINNING ANTI-SEAWORLD LETTERS

PETA Honours Students for Their Persuasive Messages Calling On SeaWorld to Release Captive Orcas

Newport, Shropshire – Courtesy of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), students in the year six class at Moorfield Primary School in Newport have received a Compassionate Action Award for writing letters to SeaWorld urging the marine park to end the suffering of captive orcas. The children’s teacher, Hannah Cliff, taught the pupils about the complex lives of orcas in the wild – and many were shocked to discover that at SeaWorld, orcas are kept in tiny, barren tanks and endure years of illness and stress before dying prematurely.

Photos are available here and here.

“I hate this cruelty! This has to stop!” one student exclaimed. Another wrote, “[O]rcas will only have one home: THE WILD,” while a third poignantly stated,  “[O]n this planet we want animals to be respected.”

“Kids naturally love animals and are eager to call for orcas’ freedom once they learn how these sensitive beings suffer at marine parks,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “We’re grateful that these kind students are spreading the message that orcas belong in the ocean, not in captivity.”

As many of the children’s letters vividly describe, the intelligent marine mammals who are imprisoned at marine parks such as SeaWorld are denied the opportunity to form the intricate social relationships and undertake the daily 100-mile ocean journeys they would experience in the wild. Housed in concrete tanks, they have no choice but to swim in endless circles when not being forced to perform meaningless tricks for audiences. PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – continues to urge all marine parks to retire these long-suffering orcas to seaside sanctuaries.

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

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