Bella Thorne has thrown shade at SeaWorld by dressing up as a half-human/orca mermaid for PETA’s Boycott SeaWorld Day (24.07.18).
The 20-year-old actress has re-imagined the alleged cruelty the mammals reportedly faced at the attraction park by appearing in the organisation’s (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) advertisement with a tail and her own wrists chained down, photographed by Brian Bowen Smith for the ‘Break the Chains: Boycott SeaWorld’ campaign.
In a YouTube video uploaded by PETA, the ‘Shake It Up’ actress revealed her anger towards SeaWorld, even though she had appeared in an advert for the company as a child.
She said: "I’m a huge animal lover … when I was a little girl I did a commercial for SeaWorld and even then I knew something wasn’t quite right."
The SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment company has caused outrage among animal rights activist groups for years, over their apparent mistreatment of animals.
Public opinion of the park decreased massively in 2013, when the documentary ‘Blackfish’ uncovered the harm faced by killer whale Tilikum, who eventually passed away in January, 2017.
Bella also urges others to protest against the company’s actions.
She says: "F**k SeaWorld! … Don’t be afraid to show up with your signs and make your point.
"If you looked it up, you wouldn’t ever want to go to SeaWorld.
"These beautiful animals are in so much pain. They’re taken away from their community, their homes, their mothers, and they don’t have a choice.
"They’re locked in there!"
PETA adds of what the mammals miss out on at SeaWorld: "orcas swim up to 140 miles a day, dive to great depths, cooperate with their pods to find food, communicate in their own dialects, and pass their own culture down from generation to generation."
The ‘Midnight Sun’ star follows in the footsteps of the likes of Noah Cyrus, Steve Aoki, Kesha, and Pink in joining forces with PETA to fight for the rights of animals.