I had the pleasure of being on Democracy Now today to talk about how a Sea World employee was busted attempting to infiltrate PETA.
PETA attorney Matthew Strugar and volunteer Hal Weiss explained how “Thomas Jones,” who attended PETA protests and was arrested at a demonstration, was exposed as a corporate spy.
I talked about how this fits into a broader pattern of dirty tricks by corporations against political activists, and how they are operating without oversight or accountability.
As I noted on the program:Â
“When people make a lot of money by abusing animals, they don’t like having that abuse exposed. It means they lose profits, because consumers don’t like that very much. That’s exactly what’s happened with Sea World and Blackfish. It’s really unprecedented amazing how quickly the tides have turned against this company…
I think these types of tactics, that I’ve reported on extensively, are truly an act of desperation when activists become incredible effective at changing cultural values, cultural discussion, and threatening corporate profits.”
Sea World refused to be on the show. But they issued a written statement to Democracy Now about how these tactics are needed because of animal rights “extremists.”
Attorney Matthew Strugar pointed out the absurdity of such a statement:
“It’s a bizarre response that they say they are concerned about safety when it was their own employee who had the most inflammatory rhetoric of any anti-Sea World activist.”
Check out the full video on Democracy Now or watch below: