COURT BLOCKS SEAWORLD'S BID TO MOVE LEGAL CASES TO ORLANDO

Earth Island Advances Environmental Lawsuit Against SeaWorld

Lawsuit Seeks Injunction Forcing SeaWorld to Tell the Truth About Orca Whale Captivity

San Francisco, CA. The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Wednesday denied an effort by SeaWorld Inc. to combine two lawsuits contesting SeaWorld’s false claims about orcas in captivity and also denied SeaWorld’s request to move the cases to Orlando, Florida.

“Keeping separate cases against SeaWorld is best; ours belongs in state court in San Francisco and the other in federal court in San Diego,” states David Phillips, Executive Director of the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute. As one of the world’s leading advocacy groups for dolphins and whales, Earth Island assists the plaintiffs in “Anderson et al v. SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment” as an advisor to legal counsel.

Added Phillips: “If SeaWorld told the truth about the whales’ shortened and stressful lives in concrete tanks, and severe depression and boredom from sterile living conditions, no one would ever go there. Would people bring their children to SeaWorld if they knew the cruelty behind the orca whale circus show? We think not.” IMMP led the successful effort to return Keiko, the orca star of Free Willy, to his home waters of Iceland where he thrived for 6 years.

The case “Anderson et al v. SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment” was filed in San Francisco Superior Court and states that SeaWorld misleads the public by advertising false claims, such as:

• SeaWorld claims orcas in captivity live as long as those in the wild, but in fact all of the orcas that have died at SeaWorld did so at an early age, well short of the ages reached in the wild.
• SeaWorld claims they do not separate mothers from calves, but, in fact, separation of calves from mothers happens frequently in the SeaWorld parks. In the wild, calves stay with their mothers for virtually their entire lives.
• SeaWorld claims that the dorsal fins of male orcas in the wild collapse like they do in captivity for virtually all of SeaWorld’s orcas, but studies of wild populations of orcas show only a very small percentage of dorsal fins collapse. The collapse of captive orca dorsal fins is a sign of unhealthy captive conditions, such as shallow tanks that do not allow orcas to dive and swim long distances.
• SeaWorld claims that orcas are “happy” in captivity, yet orcas in captivity are severely stressed and live lives of boredom. They have to be treated with medication for ulcers, with antidepressants, and with antibiotics for infections that occur only in captivity, such as those resulting from severe tooth wear that happens when bored and frustrated orcas begin chewing on metal gates and concrete tanks. They die premature deaths. At least three trainers have been killed by orcas in captivity, including two trainers killed by SeaWorld orcas, and there have been many incidents of injuries to trainers from orcas in captivity. Yet, orcas in the wild have never been known to attack or kill people.

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Copy of the litigation complaint.

Online petition to SeaWorld.

Earth Island Institute (www.earthisland.org) is a non-profit organization headquartered in Berkeley, California, supporting projects to protect the biological and human diversity of the Earth. The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP)(www.earthisland.org/immp) works to protect whales, dolphins, and their ocean habitats. IMMP developed the Dolphin Safe standards for tuna, saving the lives of 80,000 to 100,000 dolphins every year and was lead plaintiff in a a series of lawsuits that effectively ended the practice of setting nets on dolphins by the US tuna fleet.

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