Sea World Promises To Stop Sending Undercover Employees To Try And Infiltrate PETA

SeaWorld, the U.S. theme park operator whose treatment of killer whales has sparked criticism, said on Thursday it would no longer send employees undercover to infiltrate the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The company, which operates SeaWorld theme parks in Florida, Texas and California, has been working to stabilize its business after drops in attendance in 2014 amid a shift in American attitudes on the confinement and treatment of orcas, the killer whales that once were the parks' core attraction.

PETA complained last July that a SeaWorld employee, Paul McComb, had posed as an activist and tried to incite the burning of the parks and draining of the orca tanks, the group's senior vice president, Lisa Lange, said.

SeaWorld's chief executive, Joel Manby, announced the change in policy on Thursday. "The board has directed that the company's management team end a practice in which certain employees posed as animal rights activists in connection with efforts to maintain the safety and security of company employees, customers and animals in the face of credible threats that the company had received," Manby told analysts on a conference call after the Orlando, Florida-based company reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-seaworld-idUSKCN0VY2UA