While we applaud the SeaWorld decisions to end immediately their captive breeding program and to phase out theatrical shows by 2019, we cannot in good conscience allow the misrepresentations in your new advertising campaign to go unanswered and unchallenged.
We emphatically reject your mischaracterization of seaside sanctuaries as “sea cages”.
SeaWorld’s announcement that it will stop breeding captive orcas is a step in the right direction.
But sooner or later the company is going to have to bite the bullet and admit that coastal sanctuaries are the only practical and ethical solution to its dilemma.
On December 13th, Dr. Lori Marino of The Kimmela Center and Dr. Naomi Rose of the Animal Welfare Institute, presented a day-long public workshop entitled Sea-Pen Sanctuaries: Progressing Toward Better Welfare for Captive Cetaceans.
The workshop focused on key issues relevant to developing and maintaining a coastal sanctuary for formerly captive and injured/sick whales and dolphins. There are sanctuaries for other large highly social and wide-ranging mammals, such as the Performing Animal Welfare Society, but there are none anywhere in the world yet for dolphins and whales.