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Celebrity actor and comedian, Alec Baldwin, has challenged SeaWorld for using dolphins as ‘surfboards’ during its ‘circus-style shows’.
According to animal-rights organization PETA, Sea World allows its trainers to ‘surf’ on dolphin’s backs and stand on the animal’s face – causing ‘extensive scarring’ and ‘open wounds’.
‘A harmful message’
Baldwin has reportedly challenged SeaWorld executives during the company’s annual online meeting, saying: “This cruel treatment offers absolutely no educational value to the public. It also sends a harmful message to children about the acceptable treatment of animals.
“My question is this: When will SeaWorld stop allowing trainers to use dolphins in harmful circus-style shows that display cruelty, such as riding on their backs and standing on their faces, disguised as entertainment?”
‘An endorsement of animal suffering’
This isn’t the first time Baldwin has criticized SeaWorld. Back in 2013, he and his wife Hilaria Baldwin sent a letter to Macy’s CEO Terry J. Lundgren urging him to ‘pull the plug’ on SeaWorld’s float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – arguing that ‘the parade is undeniably an endorsement of animal suffering’.
More than 50,000 joined the Baldwins in urging Lundgren to pull the SeaWorld float, which PETA says depicted ‘free orcas frolicking in the ocean’ – and described it as a ‘stark contrast to the 35 orcas who have died in SeaWorld’s cramped tanks’.
Plant Based News has contacted SeaWorld for comment
