PETA and animal groups protest SeaWorld float in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Thanksgiving Day Parade is now in the center of a controversy with animal rights activists, including members of PETA protesting SeaWorld’s “A Sea of Surprises” float.
Activists are pointing to a documentary titled Blackfish, which aired on CNN, revealing alleged safety and ethical problems with their treatment of animals.
“This planned float is deceptive in the extreme because it shows orcas frolicking in a magnificent sea alongside their families when really we all know now that SeaWorld deprives orcas of all these things,” Ashley Byrne, a spokeswoman for PETA, told CNN.
Samantha Berg is a former SeaWorld trainer, who appeared in the film.
“A lot of people in the general public have realized what the truth is about what goes on behind the scenes at SeaWorld,” she says. “And they get that it is in fact a circus environment, that this is not real education and conservation.”
Berg says the float planned for the parade by SeaWorld is made of steel, foam and plastic and depicts wild sea life – a far cry, she says, from the reality of animals kept in barren tanks at SeaWorld.
In response, Macy’s said the mission of the parade is “entertainment” and that the float would stay in its 87th annual parade. SeaWorld has called PETA’s accusations “unfounded.”
According to Macy’s, all of its parade elements “are designed and created by the artisans at Macy’s Parade Studio. We have numerous guidelines that allow us to provide unique entertainment and best serve our performing talent.”
Macy’s has been part of American history since 1924
[…] […]
[…] PETA and animal groups protest SeaWorld float in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (theglobaldispatch.com) […]
[…] PETA and animal groups protest SeaWorld float in … The Global Dispatch“This planned float is deceptive in the extreme because it shows orcas frolicking in a magnificent sea alongside their families when really we all know now that SeaWorld deprives orcas of all …read more […]