A few years ago, vacationing families driving down Interstate 75 toward Orlando could see, among signs for gas stations and Waffle House, a billboard with a message.
Waiting just ahead of the Florida Turnpike, it read, “FREE WORLD NOT SLAVEWORLD: END WHALE CAPTIVITY.” The phrase is strange, as if it’s supposed to rhyme. But it makes some sense when you realize “SLAVEWORLD” is a substitute for “SeaWorld.”
“I still cannot believe whales and dolphins are being kept for performing circuses,” said Jan Pettifor, the woman who put up the billboard for the Dolphin Project. “Dolphins and whales belong in one place — the ocean.”
Animal rights groups have long targeted SeaWorld for raising whales and dolphins in captivity. They have a new ally now: the travel website TripAdvisor.
The self-described world’s largest travel platform has an animal-welfare platform, and the site has decided that it requires a SeaWorld ban. TripAdvisor will no longer be selling tickets to venues such as SeaWorld and the Georgia Aquarium, targeting attractions that breed or import cetaceans such as whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
“Whales and dolphins do not thrive in limited captive environments, and we hope to see a future where they live as they should — free and in the wild,” TripAdvisor’s president for experiences and rentals, Dermot Halpin, told the New York Times.
SeaWorld stopped breeding orcas a couple of years ago in response to protests and exposés, including the 2013 documentary Blackfish, which documented the death of a SeaWorld trainer after a killer whale dragged her underwater. But that incident was almost a decade ago, and SeaWorld says it has changed.
“We are disappointed by TripAdvisor’s new position that ignores the educational value and conservation mission of professionally accredited zoos and aquariums,” said Chris Dold, Seaworld’s chief zoological officer. “SeaWorld maintains the highest standards of care for all animals, including cetaceans.”
SeaWorld may continue to amend its practices, but for some of the animal rights activists targeting tourists, the protests won’t end until whales and dolphins are all back in the sea.
