Photos: ‘Orca Prisoners’ Urge Thomas Cook to Sever Ties with SeaWorld

For Immediate Release:

1 September 2017

Contact:

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

PHOTOS: ‘ORCA PRISONERS’ URGE THOMAS COOK TO SEVER TIES WITH SEAWORLD

PETA Campaign Calls for Travel Group to Drop Abusement Park From Its Itineraries

Peterborough – Today, two shackled and chained “orcas” with signs proclaiming, “Thomas Cook: Stop Supporting Orca Prisons,” stood outside the travel group’s Serpentine Green store in Peterborough. The action is part of PETA’s efforts to pressure Thomas Cook to stop promoting and selling tickets to SeaWorld.

Photos are 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 100 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.

The action follows similar protests by PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – at Thomas Cook stores across the UK. Since the launch of the campaign earlier this month, people have written to the company to urge it to stop promoting SeaWorld.

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

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