Update: On Tuesday, SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc., released financial results for SeaWorld parks for the first quarter of 2017. According to the reports, earnings are as dismal as ever. Park revenue and attendance were down about 15 percent.
While the company continues to make excuses for the unimpressive numbers, we know that SeaWorld’s key demographic would be far more likely to visit the parks if the orcas were released into sanctuaries. As Ringling Bros. circus prepares to shut down this month because of its failure to evolve, SeaWorld could stay afloat by moving these long-suffering animals to seaside sanctuaries and keeping captive animals out of its parks.
Originally posted on February 28, 2017:
All Joel Manby’s forces and all of his spin can’t put SeaWorld together again.
PETA, as a SeaWorld shareholder, was on the conference call this morning to discuss the company’s fourth-quarter and yearly earnings for 2016. The stockholders’ faces were probably about as red as SeaWorld’s financials.
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Ticket sales are the worst they’ve been since the documentary Blackfish was released in 2013. Attendance by members with annual passes at its flagship Orlando park dropped 14 percent from the previous year. And the company wrapped up the year with a net loss of $12.5 million.
SeaWorld is offering a tankful of excuses, including Hurricane Matthew in Florida (which shut down the Orlando park for little more than a day). But the writing is on the tiny concrete tank wall.
People are turning their backs on marine-mammal captivity, and no flashy roller coaster or “revamped” orca show is going to change that. The orca prisons are failing. SeaWorld’s only hope of survival lies in PETA’s shareholder resolution calling for the animals to be released to seaside sanctuaries.
What You Can Do
Join hundreds of thousands of people in calling for captive orcas’ release today.
