Free Willy? They don't think so. SeaWorld Entertainment Inc., the company that owns the Orlando theme park at the center of the haunting documentary Blackfish, has launched an official counterattack. The full-page ad, titled “An Open Letter from SeaWorld’s Animal Advocates” ran in eight of the biggest newspapers in the U.S. on Friday, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. The ad does not respond directly to Blackfish—which portrays the captivity of orcas as a disturbing violations of animal rights—but makes an explicit defense of SeaWorld’s treatment of its 29 captive whales.
