If an outraged email from PETA is to be believed, there will be a pretty weird cocktail party at Meatpacking District restaurant Bagatelle on Tuesday night, when SeaWorld brings in live penguins for a private event. According to the animal rights group, "penguins are to be used as living props" at the party, for reasons which remain unclear. Protests, obviously, are planned.
"Animals suffer when you put them where they don't belong—and penguins don't belong at a New York City cocktail party any more than orcas belong in tiny concrete tanks," says PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Delcianna Winders in the statement. "If Bagatelle allows this event to go forward, the restaurant will be complicit in SeaWorld's abuse of animals."
SeaWorld has been the target of mounting criticism in the wake of the documentary Blackfish, which brought appalling allegations of animal cruelty at the theme park into the mainstream consciousness. We're still trying to confirm that this Bagatelle party is in fact featuring live penguins, as PETA alleges. Representatives of Bagatelle and SeaWorld did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
PETA says that protesters will will include the 12-year-old Tribeca resident Rose McCoy, who famously disrupted the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Rose Parade to protest SeaWorld's floats.
