AN ACTIVIST from Redditch, along with her baby, dressed up as orcas and were confined inside a tiny tank outside the TUI Holiday Store in Cardiff to blast the travel company for selling tickets to Loro Parque, a marine park in Tenerife, Spain.
The action comes after the birth of a baby orca in late March at the marine amusement park – and as TUI ramps up the number of flights from Cardiff to Tenerife.
Ashleigh Tasker, aged 35, participated in the protest with her son Ziggy, aged one.
TUI – whose animal welfare policy is against breeding cetaceans in captivity for commercial purposes – is the last remaining major travel provider in the UK still selling tickets to marine parks.
PETA senior campaigns manager Kate Werner said: “Loro Parque is trying to cash in on a baby orca who was born in a prison-like tank, where he’ll be denied any semblance of a natural life and forced to spend his days performing degrading tricks for tourists.
“PETA is calling on TUI to stop propping up these wretched facilities by ending its ticket sales to marine parks.”
In nature, orcas live in complex matrilineal societies, work cooperatively to find food, and can travel up to 150 miles in a single day.
But at wildlife prisons like Loro Parque, orcas and other dolphins and whales are confined for their entire lives to cramped concrete tanks where they can do nothing but swim in circles and fend off attacks from their stressed tank mates.
Jet2holidays, Expedia, Tripadvisor, and more than 120 other UK companies have stopped selling tickets to marine parks.
The Standard have contacted TUI and are awaiting comment at the time of going to press.
