Two top SeaWorld executives replaced as part of attempt to salvage reputation
Source: The Guardian
SeaWorld has replaced two top executives in charge of animal safety and theme park operations as part of a continuing battle to turn around its brand following a series of scandals including the deaths of whales, dolphins and trainers.
The company, which is in the midst of a corporate overhaul designed to improve its reputation, announced on Friday that it has replaced its chief parks operations officer, Dan Brown, and chief zoological officer, Brad Andrews.
Joel Manby, SeaWorld’s chief executive, said the executives were being replaced by others with “extraordinary depth of knowledge” and “the right expertise to deliver on our strategic priorities”.
Brown is leaving the company after only a year in charge of SeaWorld’s three aquatic theme parks in San Diego, Orlando and San Antonio. He will be replaced by John Reilly, the current head of SeaWorld’s park in San Diego who led the company’s attempt to build new larger tanks and breed new whales. The plan backfired when the California coastal commission ruled that the company could only expand the tanks if it put an end to breeding orcas at the park.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/19/seaworld-top-executives-replaced-animal-safety-parks-operations
Rupert Neate
Friday 19 February 2016 17.41 GMT
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The entire premise of keeping these animals in tanks is flawed.
I'm starting to look at zoos the same way. Last time I went to the Point Defiance zoo, one of the elephants was standing with her head facing a wall, and shuffling back and forth in a way that I can only interpret as despair, or possibly a complete loss of its mind. And I paid to see it.
And the elephants are not the only intelligent, roaming creatures penned up in there.
Live out their lives without being mere splash puppets.
where the visitors pass a baby dolphin around and take selfies.
