Dolphins, orcas and other marine life can rejoice over United Airlines’ decision to stop selling tickets to SeaWorld. The airline also removed all acknowledgment of the park on their United Vacations website, the airline recently confirmed.
The company joins numerous other travel industry leaders who have cut ties with SeaWorld, including Alaska Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Spirit, Southwest, Sunwing, WestJet and Virgin Holidays.
United’s decision came after requests from the animal welfare organization PETA to end their relationship with SeaWorld, as well as widespread activist outcry over the park’s cruel practices.
“United Airlines made the right call to cut ties with a park that confines orcas and other dolphins to concrete tanks that — to them — are the size of bathtubs,” PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange stated. “SeaWorld is still breeding generation after generation of dolphins to be ridden around like surfboards in sea circus shows, and PETA urges anyone who cares about animals to stay away.”
Orcas do not thrive in captivity, according to Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist at the Animal Welfare Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. They are extremely large animals who swim an average of 40 miles per day in the wild to forage for a varied diet and to exercise. They dive 100 to 500 feet several times a day.
Similarly, in the wild, bottlenose dolphins swim as far as 60 miles per day, diving nearly 1,500 feet deep. SeaWorld confines 140 of them in seven small tanks, where they are unable to dive deep, swim far or avoid aggressive dolphins.
Being confined to small tanks has been shown to cause health problems, from tooth wear due to grinding their teeth on concrete and metal bars to stress-related aggression and other displays of agitation, such as restlessly circling their tanks.
SeaWorld has a lengthy record of mistreating animals. Dolphins and whales are often confined with incompatible tank mates and are drugged to subdue them. In exchange for food, these orcas and dolphins are forced to perform tricks for audiences, often with trainers standing on their backs and faces. This can exacerbate the injuries they’re already prone to from living in cramped quarters, and can also damage their hearing and strain their muscles and joints, as a recent veterinary report shows.
Due to the psychological anguish and physical health issues resulting from confinement and abuse, dolphins and orcas at SeaWorld have much shorter lifespans than they would in the wild.
Animal welfare advocates and organizations are calling for an end to orca captivity and the use of these animals for human entertainment. By ending its promotion of SeaWorld, United Airlines joins a growing list of companies that support this important cause.

Bravo United! Flying to DC on their know and feel much better about it now!!
This article is completely unequivocally false.
Thank you, United Airlines.
Thank you, good news.
That is a wonderful news. SeaWorld must shut down. We are free and happy people, why do we need to put animals in jail. They deserve to be free.
Great maybe these companies that are boycotting SeaWorld now will give a discount to me when I want to go see these animals in their natural environment (sarcastic question)
Good work.
PLEASE BOYCOTT ANY ANIMAL SHOW & ENTERTAINMENT. PLEASE HELP SAVE WILDLIFE & ALL ANIMALS FROM ABUSIVE PEOPLE WHO ARE GREEDY!
Please boycott any person who has a pet as the majority of them do not take proper care of the pets. Please save the pets from egotistical people who want to receive unconditional love but without bothering to walk and groom the pet.
Also, in case you haven’t realized, SeaWorld has saved more wildlife than you care to count.
But ignorance is bliss, isn’t it?
Great news. About time. Why are places like these still open?
Reading comments from a bunch of ignorant people with blinders on….instead of listening to a ridiculous grouo of people like PETA try doing soneonf yoyr own research before following groups around like the sheep you are.
Hoping SeaWorld will be closed down as a cruel place along with drugging the animals. All about money & no caring for the animals. Hard to believe the cruelty in the animal world of which they asked for none of it
In all my visits to SeaWorld I did not see anyone being cruel and not carrying for dolphins, orcas, sea lions and whatever else they had there. While I do agree that orcas and dolphins need more space to roam, I took it as an educational experience. You speak about cruelty forgetting that most pet owners do not take of their own pets in a proper way. Most of the dog owners keep them inside with barely any walks throughout the day. At least the orcas and dolphins were trained and and given a challenge to learn something which is not something that can be said about most pets in the US.
Yay! United Airlines caving to PETA. What a bunch of Spineless morons. That’s why I fly SouthWest.
Thank You !
How am I supposed to get to SeaWorld now?
Your piece is wholly inaccurate and disregards the value of conservation. Zoos and aquariums are not evil or immoral unless the animals are mistreated (in this case they’re not). They’re a vital part of the education that teaches humans about the environment you care so deeply about.
You are so correct!!!
I agree. Thank you for the support.
Super
Yay! About time!!!!!
Well done, United Airlines!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HELPING RESCUE THESE POOR DOLPHINS BY MAKING A STAND AGAINST SEA WORLD.
If Sea World shuts down who do you think will rescue these animals? That is what they do! Welcome to the space coast where it is not uncommon for Sea World to come to the beach or river and save an injured animal!
NAMASTE