Animal rights organization PETA has obtained federal records citing two incidents of animal and trainer injuries sustained at SeaWorld Orlando.
The records, one report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and one from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, show that a dolphin was allegedly attacked by its mates and an orca bit down on a trainer's wrist, both last year.
"Both reports offer a glimpse into the aggression that marine mammal experts believe to be caused by the enormous stress and deep frustration that cetaceans endure at the facility," PETA said in a release.
The USDA report reveals that a dolphin named Rascal sustained serious injuries from dolphins in its enclosure in October.
The 25-year-old dolphin was found to have an increasing number of rakes, marks made by one animal scraping its teeth on another, throughout his body and face. The rakes covered 30 percent of his body and caused both fresh bleeding and older scarring.
The report notes he had been trembling and unwilling to lift his tail fin. Rascal's dental arcade had also been worn away, the report says, so he was allegedly unable to defend himself.
Days after Rascal's incident, a SeaWorld visitor captured another dolphin seemingly sustaining injuries and bleeding from its face during a dolphin show via TikTok.
Trainers are heard apologizing to the audience and trying to explain the animals' actions.@the.man.child A dolphin pod at SeaWorld Orlando today repeatedly attacked one of the dolphins in the pod, while the trainers were trying to do the show, causing the dolphin to start bleeding. 😬😥😥 #dolphin #seaworld #seaworldorlando #attack #violent #nature #fyp #wild #orlando #Florida ♬ original sound - Bryan
"As you can see, our trainers are still kind of assessing the situation here," the trainer says. "They're obviously still playing."
The second report obtained from OSHA details a June incident in which a SeaWorld trainer sustained wrist injuries while cleaning the inside of an orca's mouth. The killer whale unexpectedly closed its mouth with the trainer's hand inside, leading to the employee suffering multiple bone fractures.
PETA has called on SeaWorld Orlando to send its animals to sea sanctuaries, just like the Miami Seaquarium is preparing to do with an orca named Lolita, after nearly 50 years in captivity.
