In November 2022, visitors at SeaWorld Orlando, US, witnessed what apparently was an attack of a captive pod of dolphins against one other captive dolphin, who could not escape from being confined in the same tank with the attackers. Some of the visitors recorded videos of it, and one video was posted on TikTok on 5th November showing one dolphin bleeding after the attack.
Tracy Reiman, PETA Executive Vice President, said in response to the video reports, “It never should have happened again, and how many more times must the dysfunction, cruelty, and profound animal suffering at SeaWorld be exposed? Left alone in their ocean homes, dolphins maintain dynamic relationships with large social networks, choose their own mates, and swim freely, but SeaWorld crams approximately 140 of these highly intelligent marine mammals into just seven small tanks and then expresses surprise when they lash out, again and again. PETA is calling on this hideous abusement park to end its exploitation of dolphins by sending them to seaside sanctuaries, where they would never be used in tawdry shows and no one else would get hurt.”
This incident is not the only recent animal attack at a SeaWorld aquarium. On 5th August 2022, PETA received eyewitness footage from a visitor at SeaWorld San Diego showing a violent attack among orcas that seriously wounded at least one of them. In 2021, PETA also received whistle-blower reports that the same park had put all 10 orcas kept there together, despite a documented history of aggression among some of them — which led the late orca Amaya to chase and injure an orca named Corky.
