Tell SeaQuest Promoters to Stop Supporting Animal Suffering

Why would anyone offer discounted tickets to see animal suffering? That’s a question for City & County Credit Union, America First Credit Union, and Utah Sweet Savings, which all offer discounted tickets to SeaQuest, the notorious roadside aquarium chain owned by a member of the Covino family. It has a lengthy history of animal welfare issues, animal deaths, legal violations, and injuries to employees and the public from direct contact with animals.

This sleazy company has been exploiting animals by setting up shop in malls, where animals are kept in cramped and dirty enclosures, are relentlessly prodded by visitors, and almost never see the sun. Animals have been injured, and many have died horrifically. In one incident at SeaQuest Littleton in Colorado, a wallaby named Ben was unable to escape from an aquarium tank and drowned. Visitors post reviews frequently recounting disturbing experiences and saying that they’re ashamed they visited. Exploiting animals is a form of speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.

At SeaQuest Las Vegas, a wolf eel named Saturn was left to suffer after an inch and a half of their tail was partially eaten, leaving painfully exposed tailbone. Despite knowing this, the facility didn’t contact a veterinarian until after local law enforcement got involved.

At SeaQuest Roseville in Minnesota, a bat ray was seen struggling to breathe. Bat rays have the ability to jump out of the water and skim along the surface, and like most rays, they often rest, semi-buried, in the sand. But at SeaQuest, they’re forced to live in crowded touch tanks and often seen with wounds or other health problems.

After learning of these horrors, some businesses, including Sam’s Club, have compassionately chosen not to support these sleazy mall aquariums—yet others have continued to promote animal suffering and risk public safety.

Please urge the remaining promoters to reconsider their relationship with SeaQuest moving forward.