Victory! AAA Northeast Stops Promoting SeaWorld By No Longer Selling Tickets To The Marine Park

Following a vigorous PETA campaign that kicked off with a life-size inflatable orca outside AAA’s Upper West Side office in July 2018, AAA Northeast has confirmed that it has stopped selling SeaWorld tickets.

Members and supporters of PETA and Protest SeaWorld NYC demonstrated outside AAA Northeast’s Manhattan club more than 18 times in the past year, including the day the policy was made. AAA Northeast (encompassing clubs throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island) now joins a growing list of travel-industry leaders—including: AAA Arizona, AAA Washington, and Virgin Holidays, as well as United, Alaska, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, Sunwing, and WestJet airlines that have cut ties with SeaWorld.

“No decent business should want to be associated with an amusement park that’s still breeding dolphins and riding them around like surfboards in circus-style shows,” said PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in a statement. “AAA Northeast made the right call in cutting ties with SeaWorld, and PETA is calling on AAA branches that haven’t yet done so to follow suit.”

In nature, orcas may swim as far as 140 miles per day and bottlenose dolphins may swim up to 60 miles per day, they can also dive to depths of nearly 1,500 feet and maintain dynamic relationships within a large social network. At SeaWorld, 140 of them are squeezed into just seven small tanks and can’t escape attacks from other frustrated, aggressive dolphins. At SeaWorld’s annual meeting in June 2019, PETA—which owns stock in the company—urged its fellow shareholders to stop allowing trainers to stand on dolphins’ backs and faces, which (as detailed in a new veterinary report) may damage their hearing, strain muscles and joints, and exacerbate the injuries caused by confinement to the cramped tanks.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment,” is calling on AAA National to stop promoting SeaWorld.

You can help all animals by choosing compassion on your plate. #GoVeg