Update (24 October 2023):
PETA and more than half a dozen scientists, conservationists, and organisations who specialise in cetacean welfare have fired off a letter to Jet2holidays CEO Steve Heapy.
The experts are calling him out for “failing to take a stand against animal suffering” as Jet2holidays continues to sell tickets to marine abusement parks that keep orcas and other dolphins captive.
The letter asks Mr Heapy to spare a thought for individuals like Moana the orca, who died this week at a facility promoted by Jet2holidays. Moana spent his short life in a filthy dolphinarium tank at Marineland in France, swimming in endless circles in algae-covered water. He was forced to perform for over a decade before his health declined and he died with discoloured skin and sub-dermal wounds. Jet2holidays must turn its back on the practice of exploiting cetaceans like Moana.
Signee organisations included World Animal Protection, Born Free Foundation, World Cetacean Alliance, Humane Society International/UK, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, and Marine Connection.
“It is impossible for an amusement park to provide captive cetaceans with a life comparable to that which these far-ranging marine mammals would experience in nature.”
– Letter to Steve Heapy
Update (5 October 2023):
Former Orca Trainer Speaks Out in Letter to Jet2holidays
© Melissa Hargrove
Update (7 September 2023):
Jet2’s Annual Meeting Flooded With Protesting Orcas
Update (14 July 2023):
From Tank to Tombstone: Chilling ‘Graveyard’ Comes to Manchester
Update (18 November 2022):
‘Love Island’ Star Faye Winter Body-Painted as an Orca Makes a Splash for Animals
Update (21 September 2022):
Chained ‘Dolphins’ Protest Watery Prisons at Jet2holidays’ Leeds Office
Update (1 September 2022):
Tidal Wave of PETA Protesters Wants Jet2holidays to Drop Orca Prisons
The Miserable Life of Animals in Marine Parks
Orcas and other dolphins are intelligent animals. When kept in marine parks, they suffer from social, physical, and psychological stress. Intense confinement causes frustration, resulting in abnormal behaviour, and they often break their teeth by gnawing at the sides of their tanks.
In nature, orcas form complex relationships, work cooperatively to find food, and can traverse up to 150 miles of ocean every day. However, those at marine parks are housed in incompatible groups in cramped concrete tanks – which can be 10,000 times smaller than their natural home range.
Kept in concrete prisons for decades and forced to perform confusing tricks for tourists, the majority of captive orcas die far short of their natural life expectancy.
The Tide Is Turning on Marine Parks
Leading travel providers such as Thomas Cook, Virgin Atlantic Holidays, and British Airways Holidays have already cut ties with facilities that keep orcas and other dolphins in watery prisons.
Ticket Sales Fuel Cruelty to Cetaceans
Marine parks are only able to continue confining animals to cramped tanks as long they sell tickets. Don’t give facilities like these a lifeline – visit animal-free attractions instead.
Join PETA’s campaign and urge Jet2holidays to cut ties with orca abuse now: