“Pssst! Have you ever seen that guy here before? I’ve never seen him here before…”
In a statement delivered to fiancial analysts last month, Sea World Chief Executive Officer Joel Manby said that his board of directors has “directed management to end the practice in which certain employees posed as animal-welfare activists. This activity was undertaken in connection with efforts to maintain the safety and security of employees, customers and animals in the face of credible threats.”
Huh? What kind of policy was that? PETA accused Sea World of doing this last summer, but as this is the same group of wackos that wants chimpanzees to be treated by the courts as humans and and has suggested that Punxsutawney Phil be replaced by a robot groundhog, I admit that I didn’t pay much attention. This sounds like a Saturday Night Live skit. I picture a mackerel wearing a disguise and carrying a placard.
SeaWorld hired a law firm to conduct an investigation in July after PETA accused Sea World employee Paul McComb of infiltrating events while posing activist named Thomas Jones. “Jones” had been arrested with a group of PETA protesters at the 2014 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, but was mysteriously released without charges, raising their suspicions.
McComb was placed on administrative leave during that internal probe. Manby said Thursday that McComb, who allegedly tried to incite PETA members to break the law, posted inflammatory messages on social media such as “burn [SeaWorld] to the ground” and “drain the new tanks at #SeaWorld,” and lobbied SeaWorld protesters to “get a little aggressive” and engage in “direct action,” was initially placed on leave, but now is back at work at the company in a non-spying capacity. No, he wasn’t even fired.
Res ipsa loquitur: Sea World has an ethics problem. PETA is annoying, and it has done a good job at undermining Sea World’s credibility, but it is not the Ku Klux Klan, and Sea World isn’t the FBI. Using spies to incite criminal activity or even just to gather intelligence on business or political opponents is indefensible—dishonest, unfair, and a breach of privacy. Manby’s “This activity was undertaken in connection with efforts to maintain the safety and security of employees, customers and animals in the face of credible threats” is a euphemism for “they tried to get us, so we decided to get them first, any way we could,” a.k.a “tit for tat” and “the ends justify the means.”
Beginning with Manby, they need to clean out the executive offices at Sea World, not just the tanks.
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Pointer: Fark
Source: CNN, Orlando Sentinel
Ethics Alarms 
I was at Sea World San Diego a few weeks ago and the Orca shows (and other animal shows) are rather depressing. I find zoos the same way and, yes, I do understand in a simplified manner the complexities involved in having zoo’s for animal protection and so on. I still feel uneasy about it.
Several years ago I attended a show at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and the protesters were quite clever. The venue faced a public access walkway – really a backdrop to the auditorium – on which the aquarium had no control and protesters would simulate the show by using human dummies ( I think Trump was one) and synchronize it to what was taking place inside. Clever and very well done.
PETA is just an animal “rights” version of the Westboro Baptist Church. – JMO
This is a strange, Strange, STRANGE world we live in these days where people think it’s acceptable to do what they did.
Hmm, so Sea World has used agent provocateurs against PETA, a silly and unethical organization. Probably, not the best tactic. A few heads should roll in upper management that approved this thuggish approach to PETAs excesses.
Finally. An explanation for Left Shark.