DO NOT GO TO SEAWORLD ANYWHERE! ABUSE OF ANIMALS GONE UNCHECKED

It's been just a few days since PETA shared disturbing photos of a serious injury sustained by Nakai, an 11-year-old male orca held in captivity at SeaWorld San Diego. The photograph of the gaping wound, first documented by a whistleblower and showing a dinner platesize chunk of the whale's lower jaw missing, is the latest evidence of the suffering that animals like Nakai endure while in captivity at SeaWorld and other marine parks. Will you stand up to SeaWorld and others that exploit, abuse, or mistreat animals by making an urgently needed gift online right now? According to a marine-mammal expert who visited SeaWorld shortly after we learned of Nakai's gruesome injury, the massive wound appears to be "a clear indication that an altercation between the orcas was involved." The huge chunk ripped from his lower mandible exposed underlying tissue and bone and was large and intact enough that SeaWorld workers were able to scoop it up from the bottom of the small pool prison in which the orcas live. The expert notes that "puncture marks that match orca teeth spacing" are visible in the photos and lend credibility to the conclusion that Nakai's disturbing wound was the result of a bite from another of the young male orcas he is forced to swim with in that tiny tank. Why are these three males kept together? The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) makes it clear that "marine mammals that are not compatible must not be housed in the same enclosure." Yet SeaWorld continues housing incompatible orcas from widely divergent groups together in enclosures far smaller than whales' natural ocean environment. This has resulted—as likely demonstrated by Nakai's wound—in stress, aggressive and bloody raking, serious injury, and even death. PETA is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to take action against SeaWorld immediately for its disregard for the AWA by housing these seemingly incompatible orcas together. But even if the federal government decides to act in behalf of Nakai, the miserable, psychosis-inducing captive conditions for orcas and other marine animals at SeaWorld's parks will continue. Please strengthen our work so that no animal suffers as the orcas at SeaWorld have by giving today. Your donation, whatever the amount, will be put to work immediately and allow us to keep the pressure on SeaWorld—and others that exploit animals—long after pictures of Nakai's injuries have dropped from the headlines. Captive orcas like Nakai are forced to perform repetitious and unnatural tricks for screaming audiences and can swim only in endless circles around small barren tanks between shows. In nature, these social and intelligent animals swim hundreds of miles across the oceans, work cooperatively with other animals in their pod, and engage in complex relationships and communication. But in captivity, orcas are denied the opportunity to engage in nearly all this natural behavior, causing some orcas in facilities like SeaWorld to die decades before they would in the wild. Yesterday, dozens of demonstrators joined us in pouring onto the streets in front of SeaWorld San Diego to show their outrage at Nakai's injury and SeaWorld's continued cruel imprisonment of orcas and other marine animals. Many thousands more have taken action through our online alerts demanding that SeaWorld release the orcas held at its locations into transitional coastal sanctuaries. SeaWorld is huge and has a lot of money, but it's clear that the tide of public opinion is turning against such tawdry shows, and we need your support today to help marine animals during our expanding campaign to keep the pressure on. Your gift right now can provide PETA's campaign for Nakai and other animals with the resources that we need in order to stand up to the companies that can outspend us by millions of dollars to promote activities that perpetuate animals' abuse and exploitation. Thank you for everything you do to help orcas and all captive animals. Very truly yours, Ingrid E. Newkirk President P.S. Nakai's horrifying injury is a graphic reminder of the sometimes deadly conditions for animals held captive by SeaWorld and other marine "abusement" parks. By giving online today, you'll immediately be helping us to do even more for orcas and other animals and to stand up to those who deny them all that is natural and important to them.
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