Morrissey Blasts TUI for Being the Last Major Travel Provider to Profit From Cruelty to Marine Animals

01 May 2024 - Press release

Following his support of PETA’s campaign that led Jet2holidays to cut ties with cruel marine parks, long-time PETA supporter, musician, and activist Morrissey sent an urgent letter to TUI Managing Director Andrew Flintham calling on him to follow suit and drop facilities that keep orcas and other dolphins in captivity from the company’s holiday packages.

In his letter, Morrissey explains how, in nature, orcas and bottlenose dolphins find their own food, socialise in complex groups, and explore vast distances every day. Yet, in marine abusement parks like SeaWorld, which TUI promotes, they’re confined to cramped tanks. “Contrary to your company tagline, the animals imprisoned at marine parks do not Live Happy,” he writes.

Morrissey’s letter goes on to explain how these unnatural living conditions often lead to tragic and premature deaths. “There’s no excuse for promoting – and profiting from – this cruelty. Anyone with a thinking bone in their body – or a drop of compassion – knows that not only does captivity kill the spirit of these imprisoned, intelligent, social beings, it often kills them.”

Morrissey joins nearly 120,000 PETA entity supporters who have urged TUI to drop marine parks from its itineraries, and he concludes his letter with a poignant plea to Flintham: “Please will you find it in your heart – or realise that your business is tainted by these venues – and stop supporting these magnificent sea animals’ suffering?”

TUI is the last major travel provider to profit from dolphin abuse. After hearing from PETA entities, other travel companies – including Jet2holidays, Expedia, Tripadvisor, Thomas Cook, Virgin Atlantic Holidays, British Airways Holidays, Club Med, Airbnb, and Booking.com – have stopped selling tickets to places that keep orcas and other dolphins in tanks for entertainment.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram