Joan Jett Blasts SeaWorld for Alleged Sexual Abuse of Animals

Joan Jett appeared virtually at SeaWorld’s annual shareholders meeting on Monday to excoriate the enterprise for its alleged animal abuses, namely their methods of forced breeding.

Appearing on behalf of PETA, the punk rock icon said in prepared remarks: “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,” Jett went on to claim. “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?”

The longtime animal rights advocate, whose history with the amusement park extends back to a 2013 cease and desist order sent to SeaWorld for their use of “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” during a recurring Shamu show. The move reportedly resulted from a viewing of Blackfish, the controversial documentary centered on SeaWorld’s late resident bull orca Tilikum. In 2020, SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. settled a shareholder class action lawsuit for $65 million after investors believed they were misled about the film’s impact on the company’s bottom-line.

So far in 2022 , PETA has also taken on Starbucks, with James Cromwell and Sir Paul McCartney taking wildly different approaches to voice their disapproval of the company’s expensive plant-based milk options, both on the non-profit organization’s behalf.

Recently, Jett conducted a bit more social justice on her own by taking Ted Nugent to task as “the guy who shit his pants” after he made dismissive comments regarding her placement on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists list (from nearly two decades ago). In response, she told NME: “Ted Nugent has to live with being Ted Nugent. He has to be in that body, so that’s punishment enough.” Though she could’ve easily just recycled that line again in her speech to SeaWorld’s top brass today, her measured but direct approach proves equally as effective.

Jett released her first acoustic album Changeup in March, and is just about to kick off a summer tour with Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, and Poison, starting June 16th in Atlanta. Grab your seats via Ticketmaster.

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