Lala Kent is baring her soul — and skin — in a dramatic new anti-SeaWorld ad for PETA.
“When I think about my kids and our bond, I just can’t imagine my babies being torn away from me,” the “Vanderpump Rules” alum, 34, says in the clip, shared exclusively with Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” on Monday.
Kent is speaking to the ways wild orcas have for decades been taken from their mothers to live in tanks at establishments like SeaWorld — where marine mammals are confined in tanks for the enjoyment of amusement park patrons.
To illustrate her passion, Kent stripped down to nothing but underwear for the video and submerged herself in a pool while unleashing silent screams. In an accompanying poster for the campaign, she is seen reaching up to the surface. A message reads, “The Reality: Animals Suffer at SeaWorld.”
“If I had a parent standing in front of me, talking about how they’re taking their kid to SeaWorld, my first word would be ‘don’t,’” the reality star continues.
“Orcas are meant to be in a pod. That is how they thrive. And babies who are being torn away from their mothers, they end up self-destructing.”
Kent then acknowledges that orcas held in captivity oftentimes gnaw on steel, ruining their teeth, as a jarring image of a whale’s dilapidated dentition flashes on screen.
Most of all, however, the Bravolebrity — who shares daughter Ocean, 4, with ex-fiancé Randall Emmett and welcomed daughter Sosa, 7 months, via sperm donor as a single mom — is perturbed by captive orcas’ lack of space and familial comfort.
“These mammals swim up to 150 miles a day together and you’re telling me that we’re going to keep them in a tank for the rest of their lives? It just devastates me because I know what that bond looks like between me and my girls,” she explains through tears.
“That’s nothing short of someone taking your heart away.”
Kent says that she has taught her children “from the time they were little” that establishments like SeaWorld — or facilities that offer experiences such as swimming with dolphins — are off limits.
“They do not swim with dolphins, we do not go to SeaWorld, we do not exploit animals — period,” she says, while further encouraging others to partake in her boycott.
“Tell people not to go to these places. Educate them. Don’t go. Shut these places down so they don’t exist anymore.”
This isn’t the first time Kent has partnered with PETA to take aim at SeaWorld, which has locations in Orlando, Fla., San Diego, Calif., and San Antonio, Tx.
In July 2023, via the animal rights organization, she called on SeaWorld to move a captive orca named Corky to a seaside sanctuary — but Corky has yet to be freed from the San Diego location.
In 2017, Kent teamed up with her former “Vanderpump Rules” castmates Scheana Shay and Ariana Madix to demand relief for suffering orcas. The trio posed nude in orca-inspired body paint alongside this message: “Come together to free the orcas of SeaWorld.”
In 2016, SeaWorld announced that it has ended its orca breeding program and would no longer be capturing orcas. The orcas currently in SeaWorld’s care are the last generation at the parks, which have in recent years added more rides and attractions that don’t involve performances by captive marine mammals.
This decision was largely influenced by growing public pressure and activists like Kent.
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