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Travel companies are increasingly distancing themselves from unethical animal attractions, but TUI still sells tickets. Actor Robert Lindsay has now joined other celebrities urging the firm to drop marine parks from its itineraries
Actor Robert Lindsay has hit out at holiday company TUI for profiting from captive dolphin shows, saying ‘I wonder how you sleep at night’.
The 75-year-old star of My Family and Sherwood sent a letter to the firm’s new managing director Neil Swanson – who was appointed in October – calling on him to restore the company’s reputation and stop selling tickets to marine parks where dolphins and orcas are forced to perform tricks.
It reads: “I wonder how you sleep at night, given TUI’s dubious distinction of being the UK’s last major travel provider to sell tickets to watery prisons that hold marine animals captive.”
He added how life in a barren concrete tank “is not only desperately boring but deadly, as my friends at PETA tell me more than 40 orcas and over 500 other dolphins and whales have died on SeaWorld’s watch.”
He also uses the letter to explain how highly intelligent dolphins and whales suffer at SeaWorld and other marine abusement parks, where they have nothing to do but swim in endless tiny circles and chew on the metal bars of their tanks.
He writes that life in a barren concrete tank “is not only desperately boring but deadly, as my friends at PETA tell me more than 40 orcas and over 500 other dolphins and whales have died on SeaWorld’s watch.”
Singing off he urges, “While your predecessor left a legacy of wilful ignorance, you can still emerge as a compassionate, imaginative leader by steering TUI away from the muddy waters of animal abuse. Please sever ties with marine park operators.”
The actor joins a long list of celebrities – including Morrissey, Sharon Osbourne, and tennis star Sir Andy Murray – and over 200,000 PETA supporters who have urged TUI to drop marine parks from its itineraries.
TUI is the last major travel provider to profit from whale and dolphin shows. Jet2holidays, Expedia, Tripadvisor, Thomas Cook, Virgin Atlantic Holidays, British Airways Holidays, Club Med, Airbnb, Booking.com, and over 100 other UK companies – have stopped selling tickets to places that keep orcas and other dolphins in tanks for entertainment.
“Orcas and other dolphins endure a lifetime of suffering when confined for entertainment,” said PETA Senior Campaigns Manager Kate Werner.
“Robert Lindsay and over 200,000 PETA entity supporters are urging TUI to join the rest of the travel industry and stop shamelessly profiting from marine mammals’ misery.”
Marine biologist Mercedes Reyes, said “Dolphins have a highly developed brain with more neocortex tissue than humans.
“They have the ability to feel emotions and are incredibly intelligent. They have the ability to learn, their own culture and their own language. They even give themselves names. Connection with their own family is incredibly important.
“In the wild they can swim distances of 100km a day, which is why completely oppose captivity in small tanks. They also can’t communicate naturally as their echolocation clicks and other sounds bounce off the sides of the tanks. This forces them to whisper to each other. It is cruel.
“Many dolphins in captivity also suffer depression and will try to kill themselves with abnormal behaviours such as stopping their voluntary breathing, or by banging their heads on the side of tanks. Use of antidepressants for captive dolphins is widespread.”
But the number of whales and dolphins kept in captivity has risen in recent years, as the global tourism industry expands.
China nearly doubled its ocean theme parks in four years, a 2019 study found. Hunters regularly chase and capture wild sea mammals to supply marine parks, splitting up families and killing individuals.
TUI did not respond to our request for comment.