SeaWorld Whale Death Reports Out of Reach for Animal Groups (1)

SeaWorld can avoid sending data on three orca deaths to the federal government after the D.C. Circuit affirmed Tuesday that animal welfare groups failed to show that a favorable ruling would lead the National Marine Fisheries Service to act.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other organizations and individuals sued NMFS and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, over their alleged failure to enforce conditions in SeaWorld’s permit.

The permit required the company to send medical history and necropsy data to NMFS after Tilikum and two other orcas died, the groups argued. The reports would ...