Ryan AylsworthFollowing PETA’s announcement that Pink had submitted a question on the organization’s behalf to SeaWorld during an online shareholder meeting, SeaWorld is now responding.
As previously reported, Pink asked why SeaWorld would not “transfer its orcas and other marine mammals to seaside sanctuaries,” instead of keeping them in concrete tanks. She wrote, “As a mother, I would never take my kids anywhere that keeps intelligent, sensitive beings in intensive confinement.”
While PETA told ABC Radio it received confirmation that the question was submitted, SeaWorld tells ABC Radio that it was, in fact, not received before the shareholder meeting ended. However, the park has now provided ABC Radio with a response to Pink’s question from SeaWorld Interim CEO John Reilly.
Reilly writes, “The health and well-being of our whales, and all the animals at SeaWorld, will always be our top concern.” He then goes on to say that SeaWorld employs “the world’s foremost experts” in the care of the animals, and that those experts have concluded that putting the whales in sea pens would “would pose life-threatening risks to each of them.”
“They are unlikely to be able to adjust the challenges of an environment outside of the human care that they have received for all or the vast majority of their lives,” Reilly says, adding, “No whales born into human care have ever survived being released into a sea cage or into the wild.”
“As a reminder, this was tried before and the unfortunate outcome of this experiment demonstrated the unacceptable risks and significant challenges of this option,” he writes.
Reilly says that to “take them out of this environment would be inhumane and irresponsible,” and finishes by saying, “We care deeply about our whales, and every animal we’re responsible for, and our priority is their well-being.”
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