newsweek.com
On Friday it was revealed that SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. had received a subpoena in connection with a U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation over disclosures and executive statements made regarding the Blackfish documentary before and during August 2014; particularly in reference to how the public company’s securities have been negatively impacted.
According to Bloomberg, on Friday SeaWorld stock fell to $15.65, contributing to the 17 percent of shares lost so far this year.
As per the article, SeaWorld is reportedly cooperating with the investigation, and the board is independently looking into the situation as well.
Released in 2013, Blackfish triggered an impassioned debate over the inherent cruelty of the confinement and public exhibition of orcas as well as widespread criticism of SeaWorld.
express.co.uk
Gabriela Cowperthwaite, who both produced and directed the documentary, carefully compiled “shocking footage and emotional interviews to explore the creature’s extraordinary nature, the species’ cruel treatment in captivity, the lives, and losses of the trainers and the pressures brought to bear by the multi-billion-dollar sea-park industry.”
According to the Blackfish website, the film “challenges us to consider our relationship to nature and reveals how little we humans have learned from these highly intelligent and enormously sentient fellow mammals.”
