PETA's forecast for SeaWorld San Antonio—cloudy with a chance of freedom:

On Saturday, PETA's "Let Orcas Out of Prison" banner flew across the sky while dedicated PETA supporters on the ground spread the word that trainers and animals will continue to get hurt or die until SeaWorld frees the animals to sanctuaries.

Coastal sanctuaries are the only humane places for the wild animals who are currently used by SeaWorld and other parks and who suffer for years in confined, unnatural conditions. One psychologist has pointed out that Tilikum—the captive orca who killed a SeaWorld trainer—is so traumatized from the shock of his capture, the disruption of his natural development, and his more than 30 years of imprisonment in a concrete pool that if he were human, he would undoubtedly be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

SeaWorld's continued exploitation of these sensitive animals is nothing more than a callous way to turn a cheap buck. Please don't support it.

Posted by Logan Scherer

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"How do you put an interactive, social animal, one of the smartest animals in the world … and you're going to stick them in a tub and make them do tricks? How do you do that? Because they make money? It's disgusting and SeaWorld is absolutely wrong. This is a big wake-up call. How many more people are going to have to be killed? When are we going to realize that these animals are not supposed to be there?"
—Hayden Panettiere

When it comes to speaking out against SeaWorld, the stars are aligning. The vegetarian Panettiere—who appears in the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove—joins Matt Damon, Bob Barker, Pamela Anderson, and many other celebrities who have lent their voices to support Tilikum by publicly denouncing the use of marine mammals for "entertainment."

Will you be the next to speak up? Ask SeaWorld to release the animals to sanctuaries.

Posted by Logan Scherer

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In the wake of the death of yet another trainer at SeaWorld, longtime friend to animals and dedicated PETA supporter Bob Barker has contacted Hamilton James—the president and CEO of the Blackstone Group, which acquired SeaWorld last year—to urge him to close all SeaWorld amusement parks. Barker also asks Blackstone to start building seaside sanctuaries and coastal refuges into which to move all the captive cetaceans who are now kept in fury and frustration in tiny concrete tanks that are unable to satisfy any of their natural needs.

Barker points out that SeaWorld's abysmal record of injuries and deaths of both trainers and animals is not going to improve as long as the amusement park continues to exploit the orcas, dolphins, and other highly social animals, some of whom were violently captured from their ocean homes and families and forced to learn circus-style tricks, which, according to whistleblower tips from trainers, employees "teach" by withholding food and isolating animals who refuse to perform.

The only thing that people learn from visiting a SeaWorld theme park is how miserable life is for the animals who are held there. Left to breathe and drink their own diluted urine and the waste of others in the tank with them, they languish for decades as shadows of their former selves. Many marine mammals develop vision problems from the chlorine and other chemicals that are put into their tanks, while some develop nutritional problems from the diet they are fed. Denied the simple pleasures of jumping in waves or choosing a mate, they face the inescapable noise of tens of thousands of visitors, whose steps actually vibrate through the walls of their tanks all day long, every day.

By taking the necessary steps to release these beautiful animals back in to the wild and replacing them with hugely popular and successful robotic creatures—like those used in the "Walking With the Dinosaurs" exhibit—SeaWorld would teach park visitors much more about these intelligent, complex animals without subjecting them to a lifetime of captivity. Urge SeaWorld to retire its unwilling, miserable, and frustrated marine performers before another human or animal dies, and share this information with everyone you know.

Posted by Logan Scherer

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Earlier this afternoon, another trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando was killed after being pulled into the tank by an orca named Tilikum (or Telly, for short). According to a witness, the whale, who has been involved in two previous fatal incidents involving human beings and who our captive wildlife director, Debbie Leahy, describes as "12,300 pounds of sheer rage," leapt out of the tank and grabbed the trainer by the waist, pulled her into the water, threw her around like a rag doll, and then held her underwater until she drowned. SeaWorld officials canceled the dolphin and whale shows for the rest of the day, but SeaWorld remains open (have they no shame?!) and will continue to exploit and abuse these captive animals despite the many horrific injuries and deaths of trainers and animals that have occurred throughout the theme park's history.

PETA has long been asking SeaWorld to stop taking wild, ocean-going mammals from their families and ocean homes and confining them with no semblance of a life to an area that, to them, is the size of a bathtub. No wonder these huge, intelligent animals, like the beaten elephants in the Ringling Bros. circus, lash out after being forced into subservience and forced to perform stupid circus tricks for their food for so long. For years, PETA has been calling on SeaWorld to switch to hugely popular robotic replacements like those used in the amazing "Walking With the Dinosaurs" exhibit. The public needs to stand up now against this cruelty and stop patronizing aquariums and whale and dolphin shows. Please join us in saying, "Enough!"

Posted by Logan Scherer

In early February, after we were alerted to the fact that Will Ferrell's latest movie, Semi-Pro, was to feature scenes in which Will (or, more likely, a stunt double) wrestled a live bear, PETA sent a letter to his agents letting them know about the very real cruelty that goes on behind the scenes any time an "animal actor" is trawled out for a stunt in a movie. The disturbing news that the very same bear who was used in the movie attacked and killed his trainer yesterday has put the whole thing in a new light.

It's pretty rare that people catch a glimpse of the way the animals they see in TV shows or movies are really treated (as you might imagine, they're not natural actors — they're often beaten to perform). But we're hoping that this incident, sad as it is, will encourage Hollywood actors to take a stand against performing with animals, who want to be movie stars about as much as they want to be stuck in a cage for the rest of their lives (which is pretty much the standard accommodation for a great many of the animals who are used by Hollywood). The only really surprising thing about yesterday's tragic bear attack is that it didn't happen sooner.

We're asking Will Ferrell to pledge never to act with wild animals again. I'll let you know if he gets back to us. In the meantime, you can read our letter here.

What an awful story all around. This shocking video shows a lion in a circus somewhere attacking and mauling a trainer. The lion wound up being shot and killed, and the trainer is totally messed up as well. I’m afraid it’s just another sad example of why wild animals don’t belong behind bars . . .

Yes, this video is extremely graphic, but it is reality. I felt like it was important to show the uncensored reality of what can happen when animals are driven insane in captivity, because far too often all that is reported are bubblegum fluff pieces that couldn’t be further from the truth.