What follows is a copy of an Email I wrote as part of this campaign: http://www.change.org/BAseaworld , to end Brtish Airways' partnership with Seaworld. One copy went to British Airways Managing Director, another to the CEO of The International Airline Group (the company that now owns BA), Willie Walsh.
Subject: A Concerned Customer
For the attention of: Frank van der Post, Managing Director, British Airways/ Willie Walsh, CEO International Airline Group.
Dear Mr Van der Post/Mr Walsh,
I am writing to you because I am one of 167 882 people (at the time of writing) who have chosen to sign a petition, asking British Airways to end its ties with the 'Seaworld' amusement parks. You can view this petition here: http://www.change.org/BAseaworld .
Many people, both experts and members of the public, now have great concerns about the health and welfare of cetaceans, such as orca and dolphins, in captivity. Some animals thrive when cared for well, but others are simply too intelligent, and too large for humans to provide the care they need for a long, healthy life. The evidence now points to cetaceans being part of the latter group.
There is also a great deal of risk to trainers, who frequently interact closely with these animals during shows, especially since Tilikum, a Seaworld orca who has been involved in the deaths of at least two humans (and possibly a third, who's death was not witnessed), has been bred from and is currently related to about 1/4 of all Seaworld orca.
I'm sure you know, that amongst animal breeders of any kind it is considered unacceptable to breed from an animal that has previously shown aggression towards humans, as a predisposition to aggressive behaviour can be a hereditary trait. Seaworld takes the chance of putting trainers lives at risk, so they can sell Tilikum's offspring to other parks, and populate their own.
Seaworld, although it no longer captures animals from the wild, continues to breed its cetaceans, despite the high rate of calf rejection (possibly caused by the fact wild orca will not breed until their teens, but are inseminated at Seaworld from just a few years old), high rates of calf mortality, and the short lifespans their animals experience in comparison to wild specimens.
The animals also show signs of 'stereotypic' behaviour. That is, repetitive movements seen in captive animals either with poor enclosures and lack of environmental enrichment, or with neurological issues. Such behaviours include bobbing on the surface for hours on end, swimming in repeated circles, or swimming up and down one side of the pool (much like pacing, in non-aquatic captive animals).
Instead of treating the stress with better enclosures or enrichment, Seaworld routinely gives antidepressants or sedatives to its more uncomfortable animals.
I, and others like me who have signed this petition, therefore kindly ask that British Airways sever its ties with Seaworld. The one and only statement made by your company in response to this petition expressed the sentiment that it was 'up to customers' to make the choice and you were only there to facilitate their travel. But many customers are uninformed. They assume that for Seaworld to have the success it has, and for it to be supported by respected companies such as yourselves, it must be doing right by its animals. "If it was so cruel, BA would drop it straight away!" they think.
And I firmly believe that if these were animals we were more familiar with, and that we could easily tell were distressed, you would have dropped them straight away.
If Seaworld were a zoo with big cats pacing at the bars of bland concrete and metal cages, if there were chimpanzees clearly doped up on sedatives, if there were tigers doing tricks for treats close to defenceless human trainers, if one of their lions had killed two people, and was implicated in the death of another and they had continued to breed from him, if we could read the body language and calls of orca and dolphin as well as we can other animals, then you would not be supporting them.
Please take a step towards better education of the public about these issues and at least respond to the maker of the petition. She asked for a meeting over two months ago (in an email to CEO of BA, Keith Williams on the 18th June 2014), and has not even received confirmation that her message has been read. Virgin, Southwest Airlines and STA Travel have all taken petitioning and pressure on this issue seriously and at least opened a dialogue with petition founders and experts on the topic.
If BA fails to respond yet again, then this will not stop our attempts to spread the facts about keeping these animals in the conditions they currently experience, and to pressure the companies who support (directly or indirectly) this poor treatment of highly intelligent animals.
Seaworld calls anti-cruelty campaigners like us 'extremists' and spouts messages of 'education' (as if seeing an Orca splash about in a pool to a trained routine, or swim in endless circles teaches you anything about these animals in the wild), but they are the ones with everything to lose.
I urge BA not to listen to the propaganda of the company to whom the continued use of these animals is worth millions of dollars, and to instead heed the words of the people who care simply because they care.
