HELP: My School is Planning a Trip to SeaWorld!

Posted by Rachelle on March 10, 2023

So someone at your school thought it’d be fun to go see some massive marine mammals imprisoned inside cramped tanks and went ahead and planned a little senior trip to SeaWorld, did they? 

In case this person somehow missed the documentary Blackfish and doesn’t know that dozens of SeaWorld’s corporate sponsors have jumped ship, there have been massive companywide layoffs, and there’s been a major shift in public opinion regarding the exploitation of animals for entertainment, we want to help you get any plans to visit this terrible place canceled. 

Here’s a little refresher on reasons SeaWorld sucks. Since it opened over 50 years ago, SeaWorld has profited from tearing marine mammals from their ocean homes and families or forcibly breeding them, making them perform meaningless and demeaning tricks, and imprisoning them in shallow concrete tanks where they’re deprived of everything that’s natural and important to them. The company’s entire business model is built on exploitation. 

That really is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to its utter disregard for the well-being of the countless sentient beings it’s imprisoned over the decades. And that’s why we want to help you make sure your school doesn’t take a trip there! In the event that your class is gearing up to go to SeaWorld, here are five steps you can take: 

• Ask the teacher planning the trip to screen Blackfish during class so that they (and the students) can see for themselves why SeaWorld is a terrible place for animals. 
• Talk to a different trusted staff member—like a teacher, a counselor, or the principal—about why you don’t want your classmates to visit the park. Point them to PETA’s website SeaWorldOfHurt.com for more information. 
• Reach out to us at [email protected] to order leaflets and stickers to let your peers know why they should refuse to participate in a field trip involving SeaWorld. 
• Create a petition and ask your classmates to sign it. Then give it to the person coordinating the field trip (or to someone who can override their decision). 
• If teachers and other staff members won’t listen to your requests not to go to SeaWorld, e-mail us at [email protected] so we can help. 

No student should ever be encouraged to support animal abuse, and educators are the last people who should be encouraging it. There are many senior trip options that don’t harm animals, so going to SeaWorld is completely unnecessary. 

Your class can have a picnic on the beach, take a glass-bottom boat tour, visit an accredited farm sanctuary, or go to an amusement park that doesn’t imprison animals—just to name a few ideas. The options are truly endless.