SeaWorld is a US theme park chain. The network includes marine mammal parks and aquariums. SeaWorld is a business built on the suffering of intelligent, social animals who are denied everything that is natural and important to them. Here are just 17 terrible and publicly known things that SeaWorld has created.
1. In 1965, a killer whale named Shamu performed for the first time at a killer whale show at SeaWorld. She was kidnapped from her mother, who during the capture was shot with a harpoon and killed right in front of her eyes. Shamu died six years later, although SeaWorld continued to use the name for other killer whales who were forced to perform on the show.
Recall that the average age of death for killer whales at SeaWorld is 14 years, although in their natural habitat, the life expectancy of killer whales is from 30 to 50 years. Their maximum lifespan is estimated to be between 60 and 70 years for males and between 80 and over 100 years for females. To date, about 50 killer whales have died at SeaWorld.
2. In 1978, SeaWorld caught two sharks in the ocean and placed them behind a fence. Within three days they collided with the wall, went to the bottom of the enclosure and died. Since then, SeaWorld has continued to imprison and kill sharks of various species.
3. In 1983, 12 dolphins were captured from their native waters in Chile and put on display at SeaWorld. Half of them died within six months.
4. SeaWorld separated two polar bears, Senju and Snowflake, who had been together for 20 years, leaving Senju with no other members of her species to interact with. She died two months later.
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5. A dolphin named Ringer was inseminated by her own father. She had several children, and they all died.
6. In 2011, the company took 10 baby penguins from their parents in Antarctica and sent them to SeaWorld in California for “research purposes.”
7. In 2015, SeaWorld shipped 20 penguins via FedEx from California to Michigan within 13 hours, transporting them in small plastic boxes with air holes and forcing them to stand on blocks of ice.
8. Keith Nanook was abducted from his family and friends at the age of 6, and he was used to conduct an artificial insemination experiment at SeaWorld. About 42 times he was removed from the water so that the workers could collect his sperm. Six of his children died at birth or shortly thereafter. Nanook also died after his jaw was broken.
9. SeaWorld continued to buy killer whales that were taken from their families. Their killer whale hunter hired divers to open the stomachs of four killer whales, fill them with rocks, and anchor around their tails to sink them to the bottom of the ocean so their deaths would not be discovered.
10. Abducted at the age of one year, a killer whale named Kasatka was imprisoned by SeaWorld for almost 40 years until she died. Workers forced her to perform up to eight times a day, transferred her to different places 14 times over eight years, used her to breed offspring and took away babies.
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11. Kasatka’s friend, Kotar, was killed after the pool gate closed on his head, causing his skull to crack.
12. As a child, she was abducted from her family and home, and then impregnated again and again with the sperm of her own cousin. Today, she is trapped in one of SeaWorld’s tiny pools, swimming in endless circles despite hundreds of thousands of people who have called for the company to release her and her long-suffering killer whale brothers.
13. Corky’s last child was found dead at the bottom of the pool. Her family still lives in the wild, but SeaWorld doesn’t want to bring her back to them.
14. Takara, a 25-year-old killer whale from SeaWorld, has been repeatedly artificially inseminated, separated from her mother and two children, and sent from park to park. Her daughter Kiara died at just 3 months old.
15. SeaWorld used the semen of the male Tilikum again and again, forcibly inseminating killer whales. He is the biological father of over half of the killer whales that were born at SeaWorld. More than half of his children died.
16. Tilikum also died after 33 miserable years in captivity.
17. In order to prevent the worn out and knocked out teeth of killer whales from becoming inflamed, employees drill holes in the bottom for washing, often without anesthesia and painkillers.
In addition to all these atrocities committed by SeaWorld, the company continues to isolate and deprive more than 20 killer whales, more than 140 dolphins, and many other animals.
Who is fighting with SeaWorld for? It may be too late for Shamu, Kasatka, Chiara, Tilikum, Szenji, Nanuk and others, but it’s not too late for SeaWorld to start building marine sanctuaries for the animals still trapped in its tiny sanctuaries. Decades of suffering must end.
You can help all living beings imprisoned at SeaWorld today by signing PETA.