SeaWorld is still battling the fallout of the documentary Blackfish, which exposed the theme park company’s practices in dealing with killer whales. In a new complaint against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, it said that one of its investigators had an agenda, as evidenced by pictures of her with the documentary filmmakers.
The complaint was filed on Thursday to the federal Office of Inspector General, reports WESH in Orlando.
It alleges that Lara Padgett, a lead OSHA investigator, had a pro-animal rights agenda while investigating the death of Dawn Brancheau, a trainer who was killed by a killer whale in 2010. SeaWorld said that it had evidence from the past year showing that Padgett “may have acted with a different agenda, one that is sympathetic to animal rights activism.”
According to The Associated Press, SeaWorld said that Padget “violated the Standards of Ethical Conduct for government employees.”
WESH notes that there have been photos of Padgett with the Blackfish crew at Sundance.
SeaWorld has consistently criticized Blackfish as one-sided and “misleading,” but entertainers have still decided to stop performing at their parks. In November, SeaWorld also tried to challenge a ban that limited how its trainers could interact with the killer whales.
OSHA had investigated the death of Brancheau, whose death is at the center of Blackfish. The whale that killed the trainer, Tilikum, also killed two others.
“For SeaWorld, there is no higher priority than the safety of our team members and the welfare of our animals,” the company said in a statement today.
image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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