Phoenix is a 5 hour drive from San Diego. Many Phoenicians travel to SD during the warmer months to escape the heat. ESM offers discounted tickets to Sea World to a large number of people employed by counties and cities in Arizona. We are asking ESM to stop promoting SeaWorld by offering discounted tickets which may entice people to visit the marine prison during their visit to SD.

For 50 years, SeaWorld operated under the guise of conservation and education.  But in the recent past, SeaWorld has been exposed for what it really is.  SeaWorld has been imprisoning intelligent, social, mammals for the financial gain of a few.  

In the 1970's, SeaWorld kidnapped and killed numerous orcas in the Puget Sounds, Washington decimating the Southern Resident population.  Those orcas have been listed as endangered species because they are still suffering the consequences of SeaWorld's actions which were motivated by greed.  There are fewer than 80 Southern Resident Orcas in the wild.  Once SeaWorld was denied access to the oceans to kidnap their prisoner they began their breeding program to create generations for slaves.  The documentary "Blackfish"  and the book by David Kirby "Death at SeaWorld" discusses in depth the manner in which orcas are impregnated.  Often times orcas, who are much too young, are artificially inseminated.  Once they have given birth, they are often separated from their babies which has devastating psychological effects. 

Captivity is cruel for such large, intelligent, mammals.  These orcas are kept in concrete tanks that is less than a fraction of 1% of their natural habitat.  Stealing or breeding and keeping a mammal from his natural environment, the ocean, where he would normally swim vast distances, dive to extreme depths and spend his life with his close knit family pod is simply unethical. 

To use a living, breathing, self-aware and extremely intelligent sentient being as a sperm bank or egg donor in a forced captive breeding program only for their family to be torn apart and used as splash machines for the enjoyment of a paying public is considered by many, simply appalling.

Orcas in captivity suffer from ailments that are unheard of in the wild and have a shorter life span. Orcas suffer from aggression against one another as they are forced into unnatural pods.  They suffer from dental issues due to damaging their teeth by "jaw popping" which required a pulpotomy which removes the tooth and leaves an opening which is susceptible to bacteria and infection.  SeaWorld orcas are given anti-depressants and other psychotropic drugs to control their depression from being held in a bathtub for their entire life.   

To claim that this is ocean conservation is inaccurate and grossly misleading.  SeaWorld is a sea circus whose practices are outdated and whose ethics are being increasingly scrutinized by the general public. 

In the last 18 months many large business "partners" have severed ties with SeaWorld.  Some of these companies had been SeaWorld partners for several decades.  These companies include, Southwest Airlines, Miami Dolphins, Taco Bell, Hyundai, and STA Travel, just to name a few. 

Ask ESM to do what many other large, reputable companies have done.  Ask them to stop supporting captivity by not offering discounts to SeaWorld.