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Joan Jett reps PETA, slams SeaWorld for alleged sexual abuse of animals
The rocker joins various other acts who’ve taken SeaWorld to task over its programs, including P!nk, Steve Aoki and Noah Cyrus.
Image: UPI / Alamy
Joan Jett is not a fan of SeaWorld’s breeding program — the rock icon made that clear during her attendance at the company’s annual shareholders meeting this Monday.
Appearing on behalf of PETA, Jett slammed the park for its continued breeding of dolphins and beluga whales and called for an end to the practice which the organisation describes as “repulsive and indefensible”.
The animal-rights advocate said in a prepared statement: “SeaWorld has caused public outrage by continuing to forcibly breed bottlenose dolphins and beluga whales in order to create generations of animals who then suffer in cramped tanks, deprived of any semblance of a natural life.”
“In the park’s breeding program, unwilling female dolphins are taken from the water and sometimes even drugged so they can’t fight back while SeaWorld staff thrust tubes filled with semen into their uteruses. Some must endure this process repeatedly, only for their babies to die or be taken away and shipped off to other marine prisons.”
“We can all agree that sexually abusing dolphins and whales who must carry out their forced pregnancies is disrespectful to these forms of intelligent life, heedless of these wonderful animals’ rights, and just plain wrong. My question is this: When will SeaWorld end its sordid breeding program?”
A long-time foe of SeaWorld, Jett once hit the park with a cease and desist order back in 2013 for their use of I Love Rock ‘n Roll during a recurring Shamu show. Her decision reportedly stemmed from a viewing of Blackfish, the controversial documentary about Seaworld’s resident bull orca, Tilikum.
The musician is not one to shy from controversy, as seen from her recent public spat with Ted Nugent after the Cat Scratch Fever rocker ranted on a livestream that one has to have “shit for brains” to have put Jett on a (decade-old) list of 100 Greatest Guitarists.
“This is the guy who shit his pants – literally – so he didn’t have to go in the Army” Jett hit back.