Outdoor company rejects order from SeaWorld

WDC applauds the decision of Outdoorplay, a company selling equipment to experience the great outdoors, to reject an order from SeaWorld. Stevie Trujillo, who owns the company together with her husband John “Tree” Trujillo, posted this letter on her Facebook page:

Dear Sea World,

Thank you very much for the attractive order you placed with Outdoorplay. Unfortunately, we had to cancel your order. Although I would love to take your money, our company does not support the ethics of your current business model. There are more important things than profit. We hope that you reconsider your company vision, free the animals you have in captivity, and reinvent yourself as a true conservation organization.

Sincerely – TREE, Outdoorplay.com CEO

Dixie Gillaspie, editor at The Good Men Project, got in touch with the couple and asked them about their reasons for their brave decision to reject a substantial order from a company whose business model they don’t want to support. 

Since the documentary BLACKFISH premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2013, the topic marine mammals and especially orcas in captivity has become more present in public discussions and also mainstream media. BLACKFISH features the story of orca Tilikum, who has been involved in the death of three people, and his tragic life in captivity. A phenomenon known as “the Blackfish Effect” has led musicians to cancel their gigs at SeaWorld or prohibit the company to use their music in shows (for example Joan Jett’s “I love Rock ‘n Roll”), school kids to protest against their school field trip to the amusement park and in California, assemblyman Richard Bloom proposed a bill (AB 2140, also known as the “Blackfish Bill”) which would, if it became law, phase out orca captivity in the state in the long term.