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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

SeaWorld has admitted in a statement that multiple employees participated in spying against animal rights activists [bbc.com]:

US marine amusement park SeaWorld has admitted some of its employees posed as animal activists to spy on its critics. SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby said in a statement [seaworldcares.com] on Thursday that his company would no longer use such practices. The revelation came out after a worker from the San Diego park was discovered posing as an activist last year. The company has faced intense criticism by animal rights activists who say it is enslaving marine animals at its 11 parks across the US.

"The board has directed that the company's management team end a practice in which certain employees posed as animal rights activists," Mr Manby announced on Thursday. He said the decision to send people undercover was "to maintain the safety and security of company employees, customers, and animals in the face of credible threats that the company had received".

SeaWorld employee Paul McComb was briefly suspended in July after the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) accused him [peta.org] of trying to incite violence among peaceful protesters whilst posting as an activist. But SeaWorld announced on Thursday that he has since returned to work in a different department.

This article from last year has some more details about the spying operation [theguardian.com]:

Separately, Peta said it was investigating the possibility that between three to five other people who had acted as supporters may have been operating undercover in some capacity for the theme park, having shown similar behaviour to McComb. Dr Jeffrey Ventre, who worked as a SeaWorld trainer in the early 1990s but has since become a vocal critic of keeping orcas in captivity, claimed: "It's bigger than Peta. The spy ring is much more sophisticated." Ventre, who appeared in Blackfish, said McComb had shadowed people involved with the CNN Films documentary, recording presentations that were meant to be closed door.

[...] The Pasadena police department's decision to release McComb (then going by Jones) after arresting him during a protest at the January 2014 Rose Parade first sparked suspicion among Peta members. Peta filed suit against Pasadena on Thursday for failing to produce documents under a Freedom of Information Act request that might show why the alleged undercover SeaWorld employee was released during the protests when Peta members were not.

Samantha Berg, another former SeaWorld trainer, said SeaWorld protesters had suspected undercover operatives may have been at a protest in Orlanda, Florida, in April. She said four unidentified individuals held signs reading "support social communism" under a hammer and sickle. "The protesters knew them, because they had been showing up over a period of months every time they would have a protest," said Berg. The belief among protesters at the time, according to Berg, was that SeaWorld had dispatched those four in order to "make the regular protesters look a little crazy".

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