The band Heart, comprised of Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson, have announced that they are canceling a scheduled performance at SeaWorld after seeing the popular documentary Blackfish.

Blackfish Inspires Heart To Cancel SeaWorld Gig

Blackfish, an in depth look at SeaWorld and their practices in regards to the capturing and training of killer whales, or Orcas, premiered on CNN in October and has succeeded in calling into question the SeaWorld policy of capturing whales for the sake of entertainment. Heart announced their decision to cancel their Feb. 9 performance at SeaWorld on Dec 8, specifically citing Blackfish as an influencing factor in their decision.

Nancy also took to twitter to defend the band against critics that might say they should never have accepted the show in the first place, saying that the show had been planned long in advance, before SeaWorld’s treatment of Orcas had been exposed.

Blackfish Backlash

By canceling their show, Heart is following in the footsteps of Willie Nelson and the Barenaked Ladies, who also canceled their performances at SeaWorld after a petition began on Change.org calling on artists not to participate in SeaWorld’s “Bands, Brew & BBQ” concert events.

“While we’re disappointed a small group of misinformed individual was able to deny fans what would have been great concerts at SeaWorld by Heart, Barenaked Ladies and Willie Nelson, we respect the bands’ decisions,” Nick Gollattscheck, a spokesman for SeaWorld, said in response to the news.

Gollattscheck also said that SeaWolrd welcomes any group or performer to come and visit the amusement park to see how the animals are treated first hand. In their Facebook post to explain the decision not to go forward with their SeaWorld performance, Barenaked Ladies mentioned that SeaWorld had offered to give them a tour of the park before the performance. Still, they said they did not “feel comfortable proceeding with the gig” after viewing Blackfish.

SeaWorld has been busy doing damage control since Blackfish premiered. Recently, animal activists and protesters campaigned against the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the inclusion of a SeaWorld float. The organization did not remove the float form the line up, but the protests in front of Macy’s and the online campaign did drum up quite a bit of publicity.

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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More on Blackfish:

_{PETA Protesting SeaWorld Float At Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade}

_{Dr. John Jett Video Interview On CNN’s ‘Blackfish,’ The Future Of Killer Whales At Sea World}