SeaWorld is losing money as fast as it’s losing patrons. Today’s stock report showed that shares of SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc., plummeted more than 17 percent, bringing the price to $11.10, the lowest that it’s ever been.
No one wants to see animals suffering in tiny tanks. #SeaWorld's stock plummets to the lowest it's EVER been! pic.twitter.com/WbbwcecXh4
— PETA (@peta) August 8, 2017
SeaWorld’s stock isn’t the only thing being hit hard. According to the company’s second-quarter and first-half financial reports for 2017, published this morning, park visitation has also taken a hit, dropping during the first half of the year. Revenue also reportedly declined during this period. So far, 2017 has not been good for the company, which experienced a $273 million loss for the first half of the year. According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, SeaWorld’s San Diego park was one of the most affected—not surprising, considering that PETA launched an anti-SeaWorld ad blitz earlier this year to urge Southern California residents to shun the abusement park.
Billboards, TV ads, & more. As #SeaWorld targets LA residents, PETA’s campaigning to remind folks #SeaWorldSucks. https://t.co/JmIQKPp6gB
— PETA (@peta) May 23, 2017
Numbers don’t lie, and they show that folks are fed up with SeaWorld’s continued cruelty and numerous fatalities. The death toll at the parks this year includes Tilikum the orca, Szenja the polar bear, a possibly inbred infant Commerson’s dolphin, an infant beluga, and the infant orca Kyara—and her ailing grandmother is reportedly poised to follow her—and it’s because of all this that the company’s stock continues to take a pounding. How many more animals will die and how much lower will SeaWorld’s profits go before the company heeds PETA’s call to move the surviving animals to seaside sanctuaries?
#IfAnimalsMadeLaws they would SHUT DOWN #SeaWorld. #OrcaWeek pic.twitter.com/WCw2Icm1Pp
— PETA (@peta) July 30, 2015
Fortunately, stock prices and attendance are showing few signs of a rebound anytime soon, which is great news for captive marine mammals. When SeaWorld runs out of money, it’ll be forced to get out of the abusement park business. Animals are not objects to be exploited for entertainment, and any company that treats them so disrespectfully will find that its days are numbered.
What You Can Do
In addition to shunning SeaWorld’s parks, you can do more to help the animals imprisoned there. Click the button below to ask the company to end all animal acts at its parks and to release the animals it holds captive to seaside sanctuaries.
