SeaWorld lawsuit alleges orcas are drugged and confined in 'chemical tubs'

Lawsuit is second in three weeks to attack marine park for abusive treatment of killer whales and demands reimbursement for all visitors in the last four years

The Guardian, Joanna Walters in New York, Friday 10 April 2015

The federal class action lawsuit also says SeaWorld’s performing killer whales
have been deprived of food, forced to breed and are confined in chlorine baths.
Photograph: Magnolia Pictures/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

A new class action lawsuit has been filed against SeaWorld in Florida accusing the marine park of keeping its performing killer whales drugged and suffering from sunburn in tanks that are the equivalent of “chemical bathtubs”, leading to early death for the intelligent mammals.

South Carolina grandmother Joyce Kuhl is suing the SeaWorld center in Orlando for her money back following her visit in 2013 – and for ticket money also to be reimbursed to millions of other visitors – via a federal class action lawsuit that could cost the park billions of dollars, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

It is the second time SeaWorld has been sued in less than three weeks, after a similar class action lawsuit was filed in California last month alleging the company is misleading the public by claiming its captive killer whales, or orcas, are happy and thriving.

The California lawsuit targets all three SeaWorld locations, in San Diego, California; San Antonio, Texas and Orlando, Florida, while Kuhl’s action focuses solely on the Florida park.

The lawsuits are the latest blow for SeaWorld, which has been under a hail of criticism from the public, some shareholders, regulators and animal welfare groups since one of its star trainers was killed by a male orca in 2010 and subsequent allegations of chronic mistreatment of whales in the 2013 documentary Blackfish – which the company denies.

Kuhl filed suit in federal court in Orlando on Thursday accusing the company of spinning an illusion about the “magic” of man and whale living and playing in harmony in the marine park, which “masks the ugly truth about the unhealthy and despairing lives of these whales”.

Kuhl, a previous resident of Gainesville, Florida, now living in Aiken, South Carolina, visited SeaWorld in Orlando in December 2013 and paid $97 for her ticket.

But in the lawsuit filed on Thursday by Gainesville-based attorney Paul Rothstein, she accuses SeaWorld of making millions of dollars in profit via “false, misleading and deceptive business practices”.

Kuhl declined to comment to the Guardian and referred inquiries to Rothstein.

Rothstein told the Guardian that Kuhl is not an animal rights activist but “an ordinary animal lover” who found out information after visiting the aquatic park that was “inconsistent” with the company’s marketing.

“She would not have purchased her ticket had she known then what she subsequently found out,” he said.

Kuhl’s lawsuit lays out a catalogue of allegations of mistreatment of killer whales at the park in Orlando.

She is suing for reimbursement for all the visitors to SeaWorld Florida over the last four years, the statute of limitations to bring a lawsuit under state law.

If successful, that would amount to at least $2bn. Prices are charged across a range, but a typical ticket costs around $100 a head. SeaWorld Florida receives just over 5 million visitors a year, according to the lawsuit.

The public court document accuses SeaWorld of keeping the whales in tanks that, compared with the open ocean where she says they regularly swim 100 miles a day, is like being confined to a single room for life.

The lawsuit details chlorine solution “many times stronger than household bleach” and other chemicals dissolved in the water where the whales are confined after being caught or bred, which makes their trainers’ eyes burn and forces the humans to have to stay out of the water on occasions.

“The orca, of course, have no such reprieve,” the court document states. “These orcas suffer in tiny, unnatural chemical tubs.”

Kuhl also accuses SeaWorld of keeping orcas in holding pools as shallow as 8ft for hours every day in the blazing sun, “essentially roasting” until they are so sunburned they have to disguise the injuries by painting the mammals with black zinc oxide.

They are sometimes trained to perform by being deprived of food for several days or even weeks, the lawsuit alleges, “when positive reinforcement fails”.

Kuhl’s suit details forced breeding, incestuous inbreeding and whales kept together in ways that make them hyper-aggressive so that they fight and inflict deep gashes on each other.

She details whales banging their heads against their tanks and grinding their teeth on the walls, floors and bars until their teeth break or are worn to the pulp, allegedly because of boredom, frustration and ennui.

And she points out that while orcas in the wild do not regurgitate their food, they regularly do at SeaWorld, betraying their frustration and causing a health risk.

“SeaWorld has long known this but accepts that abnormal (even desperate) orca behavior ... is the price paid for this form of human entertainment and company profit,” the court documents say.

SeaWorld said in a statement about the previous lawsuit in California that the company is among the world’s most respected zoological institutions.

It adds that is “regularly inspected by the US government and two professional zoological associations. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums recently granted SeaWorld accreditation from its independent accreditation commission. There is no higher priority for SeaWorld than the health and wellbeing of its animals”, the statement said.

On Friday, SeaWorld said it “is committed in every respect to the health and well-being of the animals in our care” and said the lawsuit “appears to be an attempt by animal right extremists to use the courts to advance an anti-zoo agenda.

“The suit is baseless, filled with inaccuracies, and SeaWorld intends to defend itself against these inaccurate claims.”

Kuhl’s lawsuit points out that in the wild, orcas typically live between 30 and 50 years and can often live into their 80s and beyond. In SeaWorld most orcas die in their teens or 20s, she alleges.

And the lawsuit points out that staff at SeaWorld administer antacid drugs to the orcas to alleviate stomach ulcers, antibiotics and contraceptives.

“Perhaps most telling, captive orcas are also subject to drugging by SeaWorld personnel with antipsychotic and psychoactive drugs, including benzodiazepines such as Diazepam (generic Valium), which are given to calm the captive orcas which react against their conditions of confinement,” the lawsuit states.

Related Article:

SeaWorld park to redesign controversial whale tank