Supermodel Marisa Miller, who is currently pregnant with her second child, posed naked in a bathtub for a PETA campaign accusing SeaWorld of separating orca calves from their mothers.
“Being a mom and seeing Blackfish, it was extremely emotional,” Miller, a former Victoria’s Secret model and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover star, said in the PSA, referring to the high-profile documentary about SeaWorld. “I think any mother knows the sense of protection and connection you have with your baby.”
The PETA campaign’s allegations echo those of former SeaWorld orca trainer John Hargrove, who in a March interview with NPR about his SeaWorld-critical book said, via Huffington Post:
“As I became higher-ranked, I saw the devastating effects of captivity on these whales and it just really became a moral and ethical issue. When you first start to see it, you first try to say, ‘OK, well, I love these animals; I’m going to take care of them.’ … You think, ‘I can change things.’ And then all these things, of course, never improve and then you start … seeing mothers separated from their calves; you start seeing trainers being killed, and then they blame [the trainers] for their own deaths.”
SeaWorld has denied the claims of both PETA and Hargrove. “Contrary to what you see in PETA’s campaign, SeaWorld understands the importance of keeping killer whale mothers and their dependent calves together,” it said in a statement. “Mothers provide support and nutrition and we do not and would not interfere with that, unless the mother or calf’s life was in danger.”
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Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com