'Captive' mother and baby take part in anti-Marine Park protest outside Tui, Cardiff

Stephen Price

An animal rights supporter and her baby were confined inside a tiny tank outside the TUI Holiday Store in Cardiff to protest against the travel company for selling tickets to Loro Parque, a controversial marine park in Tenerife, Spain.

The action comes after the birth of a baby orca in late March at the marine 'amusement park' – and as TUI ramps up the number of flights from Cardiff to Tenerife.

TUI – whose animal welfare policy is against breeding cetaceans in captivity for commercial purposes – is the last remaining major travel provider in the UK still selling tickets to marine parks.

🚨 A BABY ORCA WAS BORN IN A PRISON.
And today in Cardiff, a human mother and her baby made sure we didn't forget 👇#TUICruelty #BoycottTUI @TUIUK pic.twitter.com/rx8ZbyQfTz

— PETA UK (@PETAUK) April 29, 2025

PETA Senior Campaigns Manager Kate Werner said: “Loro Parque is trying to cash in on a baby orca who was born in a prison-like tank, where he’ll be denied any semblance of a natural life and forced to spend his days performing degrading tricks for tourists.”

Kate added: “PETA is calling on TUI to stop propping up these wretched facilities by ending its ticket sales to marine parks.”

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Complex societies

In nature, orcas live in complex matrilineal societies, work cooperatively to find food, and can travel up to 150 miles in a single day.

But at wildlife "prisons" like Loro Parque, orcas and other dolphins and whales are confined for their entire lives to cramped concrete tanks where they can do nothing but swim in circles and fend off attacks from their stressed tank mates.

Jet2holidays. Expedia. Tripadvisor.
120+ companies dropped marine parks.
But TUI is still funding cruelty.

💥 Over 200,000 voices demand change. Message TUI now:https://t.co/qCUX7PWyrK

— PETA UK (@PETAUK) April 29, 2025

Jet2holidays, Expedia, Tripadvisor, and over 120 other UK companies have stopped selling tickets to marine parks. More than 202,000 PETA entity supporters have called on TUI to follow suit.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.

For more information, and to help support their campaign, visit PETA.org.uk or follow PETA on Facebook, X,TikTok, or Instagram

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