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December 2024 marks a heartbreaking milestone for Corky, the longest-held captive orca in the world: 55 years of confinement to tiny marine park tanks. That’s why, on December 6 and 7, PETA led the “Run for Corky’s Freedom”—a roughly 150-mile relay run from Los Angeles to San Diego—to demand that SeaWorld release her into a seaside sanctuary.
What Are We Running Toward?
The 150-mile dash—longer than five marathons—represents the distance that orcas like Corky can swim in a single day in their ocean home. Instead, she’s spent more than five decades languishing in small concrete tanks at abusement parks like SeaWorld.
Take a Look at the Highlights From PETA’s ‘Run for Corky’s Freedom’
At the kickoff event in Los Angeles, the energy was at an all-time high: Music blasted, Corky advocates delivered powerful speeches, supporters held “Send Corky to a Seaside Sanctuary” posters up high, cheering onlookers chanted “Free Corky!,” and passing cars honked in support as our runners prepared to participate in a 150-mile relay race through the night, all the way to San Diego.
Then, it was off to the races. Smoke flares went off, and the pod of PETA runners started the relay bearing a symbolic bolt-cutter “baton” and carrying a giant inflatable orca.
Influencer and animal advocate Travis White joined the first stretch of the relay, encouraging his supporters to take action for Corky.
From busy sidewalks to bridges to mountain overpasses, the runners kept pushing forward despite blisters, exhaustion, and aching knees.
They blazed through Pomona, Ontario, and Corona, leaving the twinkling city lights behind to start their overnight climb alongside the Santa Ana Mountains.
Without stopping for a wink of shut-eye, five runners kept going throughout the night, running up dirt trails and through winding canyon roads.
Equipped with headlamps to illuminate the dark streets, the runners made it around Lake Elsinore around 1:30 AM.
An hour and a half later, at about 3:00 AM, the runners hit mile 100, just south of Temecula, CA.
Even as temperatures dropped to a near-freezing 37 degrees, the runners persisted, never losing sight of the mission to free Corky.
At dawn, the runners watched the sunrise in Vista, California, as they started their descent into San Diego.
Over the course of the 27-hour-long relay, PETA’s runners climbed over 5,000 feet. After the final stretch, the runners made it to the Mission Beach Boardwalk in San Diego.
Crowds cheered, PETA supporters waved “Free Corky” flags, and passersby watched in amazement as the runners carried the bolt cutters and the inflatable orca across the finish line, symbolizing that we’ve reached the home stretch in the fight for Corky’s freedom.
Corky the Orca’s Life in Captivity
Corky was sold into the entertainment industry after being taken from her family off the coast of British Columbia in 1969. She was just 4 years old. Of the 13 members of her pod who were captured between 1968 and 1969, Corky is the only one still alive.
The last Northern Resident orca in captivity, Corky has spent the majority of her life separated from her family and culture. While her free pod members band together to chase salmon, explore the vast ocean, and, in the summer, visit the beaches near Vancouver Island to rub their bodies over pebbles on the shoreline—a tradition unique to Northern Residents—Corky’s life consists of forced performances and concrete tanks.
If she hadn’t been captured from her ocean home, Corky might have had the opportunity to raise and share a lifelong bond with her calves. For years, she was used to breed more orcas into miserable captivity—but none of her calves survived past 47 days. Her last pregnancy ended in a miscarriage when her dead baby was found at the bottom of a tank at SeaWorld.
PETA Has Gone the Extra Mile—and Then Some—to Free Corky
The “Run for Corky’s Freedom” is a new, groundbreaking addition to PETA’s extensive campaign for Corky, which has included bold demonstrations, public service announcements with celebrities such as Pamela Anderson and Christopher von Uckermann, a petition signed by more than 200,000 of our supporters (and counting), a constitutional lawsuit on Corky’s behalf, and more.
Last year, for the 54th anniversary of Corky’s imprisonment, PETA’s “Santa Claus” supporters descended on SeaWorld to show the abusement park that denying orcas any semblance of a natural life is naughty—not nice.
Time Is Running Out—Corky Needs Your Help NOW!
In their natural home, orcas have sophisticated social relationships, complex dialects, and unique customs. At SeaWorld, these emotional, intelligent animals have nothing to do but swim in endless circles or float listlessly while enduring stress, frustration, and depression.
PETA and our supporters continue to urge SeaWorld to develop a firm and rapid plan to transfer Corky to a seaside sanctuary in her home waters off British Columbia—which a team of experts is already preparing for her. If released into a sanctuary in these waters, Corky could finally feel the ocean currents, hear the songs and calls of other free orcas, and possibly communicate with her siblings. But for all this to happen, SeaWorld needs to act now.
Please speak up for Corky before it’s too late:
