PETA supporters dressed as captive orcas and bound in chains gathered at Manchester Airport – TUI’s primary UK transport hub – and called on the travel giant to stop selling tickets to facilities that keep orcas and other dolphins imprisoned in tanks.
The animal defenders held a giant banner reading “TUI: Cruelty Doesn’t Fly. Drop Dolphin Prisons”, while “orcas” in chains lay in front of it holding signs reading “Free Me!”.
The demonstration comes as TUI remains the last major travel provider in the UK to promote and sell tickets to dolphin prisons, despite mounting public concern over the welfare of captive marine mammals.
No holiday memory is worth a lifetime in a tank,” says PETA’s Senior Campaigns Manager Kate Werner. “While other major travel companies have stopped promoting marine abusement parks, TUI is still cashing in on the misery of orcas and other dolphins. It’s time for TUI to axe dolphin prisons from its itineraries.”
In nature, orcas and other dolphins live in large, complex social groups and swim vast distances every day in the open ocean. But at facilities like SeaWorld and Loro Parque, they spend their days floating listlessly or swimming in circles in tanks comparable in size to a human living in a bathtub. Most die far short of their natural life span, and they often suffer from distressing health conditions that perpetuate their misery.
