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(Excellent news. I dealt with SeaWorld and orcas in a recent
CounterPunch article:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/12/save-the-whales/)
Washington Post, July 19, 2019
Richard Branson cuts off SeaWorld as debate rages over captive whales
and dolphins
By Hannah Sampson
Six years after a critical documentary sparked a global conversation
over the ethics of keeping killer whales in captivity, chips are still
falling.
Virgin Holidays is now out of the business of bringing tourists to see
whales and dolphins that are confined in attractions, ending
partnerships with SeaWorld theme parks in Orlando and San Diego;
Discovery Cove (in Orlando), a SeaWorld-owned park that offers swimming
with dolphins; and Atlantis the Palm (Dubai) and Atlantis Paradise
Island (the Bahamas), resorts that sell close-up experiences with
dolphins. The company had previously stopped booking 19 other
attractions in Jamaica, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Florida, most
of which offered interactions with dolphins.
“For all of us at Virgin, the announcement marks the most significant
milestone yet on a five-year journey to drive positive change in the
tourism industry,” Virgin Group founder Richard Branson wrote in a blog
post.
In a statement, SeaWorld chief zoological officer Chris Dold decried the
decision: “It is disappointing to see Virgin Holidays succumb to
pressure from animal activists who mislead and manipulate marine mammal
science to advance their agendas.”
With its announcement, Virgin Holidays became the latest tour operator
to distance itself from attractions that make creatures like whales and
dolphins their bread and butter, as the larger travel industry reckons
with when it’s acceptable for animals to be part of a tourist’s experience.
A year ago, Thomas Cook Group CEO Peter Fankhauser said the U.K.-based
tour company would “no longer sell any animal attractions that keep
orcas in captivity.” That policy goes into effect this summer.
“We have actively engaged with a range of animal welfare specialists in
the last 18 months, and taken account of the scientific evidence they
have provided,” Fankhauser said in a blog post last year. “We have also
taken feedback from our customers, more than 90% of whom told us that it
was important that their holiday company takes animal welfare seriously.”
Online travel company Expedia said in 2017 that it would no longer allow
“activities involving certain wildlife animal interactions” to be booked
on its sites, including Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity. And in 2016,
TripAdvisor announced that “specific tourism experiences where travelers
come into physical contact with captive wild animals or endangered
species, including but not limited to elephant rides, petting tigers,
and swim with dolphin attractions,” would no longer be bookable on its
site, its tours or its activities-booking subsidiary, Viator.
In this 2011 photo, killer whale Tilikum watches as SeaWorld trainers
take a break during a training session at the theme park's Shamu Stadium
in Orlando. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP File)
Canada passed legislation last month — dubbed the “Free Willy” bill by
some — that bans the practice of keeping whales, dolphins and porpoises
in captivity. Only two attractions in the country are affected; they are
allowed to keep the mammals they have but not breed more.
Virgin’s road to banning activities with captive cetaceans started in
2014, when the company said it would only work with suppliers that
didn’t take the creatures from the wild. A few years later, Virgin
Holidays said it would not add attractions to its portfolio if they
featured whales and dolphins in captivity.
“We felt strongly this was the right thing to do and we knew most of our
customers support it, too,” Branson wrote. “Many no longer consider
whale and dolphin shows and ‘swim withs’ to be appropriate, and most
would rather enjoy these magnificent creatures in their natural
environment.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has battled SeaWorld
for years, cheered the company’s move.
“Hats off to Virgin Holidays, which has made a big splash by scrapping
tours to any facility that imprisons sensitive whales and dolphins,
denying them any semblance of a natural life,” PETA president Ingrid
Newkirk said in a statement. “The tide is turning against marine
abusement parks, and PETA is now calling on AAA to join Virgin by
rejecting SeaWorld promotions.”
The announcement from Virgin comes as SeaWorld is finally seeing its
business improve years after the release of “Blackfish,” a damaging 2013
documentary that examined the killing of a SeaWorld trainer by one of
the company’s orcas and the practice of keeping killer whales captive.
The company said it would stop breeding orcas in 2016 and pledged to
change its killer whale shows to be more educational and less
entertainment-driven.
Last year, its attendance rose by 8.6 percent year-over-year to 22.6
million visitors, and revenue rose by 8.6 percent to $1.37 billion. The
company, which has 12 theme parks across the country, has focused more
on its rides and continues to emphasize its rescue and rehabilitation
efforts.
“With more than 35,000 animal rescues and decades of meaningful
scientific contributions, we are proud to be a recognized global leader
in marine mammal science, education and, in particular, providing
preeminent care to all of our marine mammals,” Dold, SeaWorld’s chief
zoological officer, said in a statement this week. “With rising threats
to our oceans and their inhabitants, supporting independently accredited
zoological facilities is more important than ever. No company does more
to protect marine mammals and advance cetacean research, rescue and
conservation than SeaWorld.”
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