SeaWorld launches 'Blackfish' counterattack in ads

[Baitball Blogger]

After months of dismissing "Blackfish" as activist propaganda, SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. today is launching a more aggressive counterattack on the critical documentary.

The Orlando-based theme-park company has placed full-page ads in eight of the country's largest newspapers, making a passionate case for the importance of displaying killer whales in captivity.

The "Open Letter from SeaWorld's Animal Advocates" — which appears in today's Orlando Sentinel, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today, among other papers — defends the way SeaWorld cares for the 29 whales in its corporate collection. Although it never identifies "Blackfish" by name, the ad is the first step in a campaign to rebut criticisms raised by the film and the animal-rights activists promoting it.

SeaWorld President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Atchison said in an interview Thursday that the company decided to respond after several well-known performers backed out of concerts that had been scheduled for early next year at SeaWorld Orlando, most of them citing the "Blackfish" controversy

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-seaworld-blackfish-ads-20131219,0,7050352.story

[zappaman]

1. Good luck with that.

These animals do not belong in captivity for our amusement.