An employee at SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. has been caught by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) posing as a registered animal activist by using a false name to spy on anti-SeaWorld rallies, Bloomberg reports.
An activist who has identified himself as Thomas Jones joined other protestors as they held signs against SeaWorld outside its theme park in San Diego in 2013, and even got arrested by police for holding the Sea World float during the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California in 2014.
Jones was also active in responding to PETA's Facebook posts, fishing information from fellow-activists about their protest plans. "What is the big surprise for the upcoming protest. Are we going up the gates or something," he wrote in March 2014.
"Grab your pitch forks and torches. Time to take down SeaWorld," he encouraged the group before their July 2014 anti-SeaWorld rally.
Jones' Facebook photos resemble the photos posted by Brittany McComb, who is the wife of a SeaWorld Human Resources employee Paul McComb. Paul worked at the company since 2008.
Although Brittany confirmed she is Paul's wife, the couple who was reached by phone each refused to answer other questions.
PETA spokeswoman Lisa Lange, who has met Thomas Jones three times, confirmed that the photos found in Brittany McCombs matched his. "It's definitely him," Lange told Bloomberg in a phone interview.
"We are focused on the safety of our team members, guests and animals, and beyond that we do not comment on our security operations," SeaWorld spokesperson, Fred Jacobs stated on Monday. "This is a responsibility that we take very seriously, especially as animal rights groups have become increasingly extreme in their rhetoric and tactics."
Since the "Blackfish" documentary that revealed the company's killer whale captivity, SeaWorld has been drowning in bad reputation and suffered a huge drop in attendance in 2013 and 2014.
Despite SeaWorld's marketing campaigns telling people that trained orcas get excellent care, animal activists continue to fight against the company holding these endangered species captive.
