Sea Turtle Farming

At the Cayman Turtle Farm, 9,500 endangered green sea turtles are farmed for meat. We’re urging Cayman Turtle Farm to stop meat production & start turtle rehabilitation & release.

Sea turtles are solitary animals and natural swimmers – able to cover thousands of miles

But at the Cayman Turtle Farm, turtles are forced to live in cramped, crowded tanks. Biting, sickness and stress are problems – as is inbreeding, with some turtles born without eyes. Animals are slaughtered for meat, which is sold to tourists in restaurants as steaks and burgers. But the transformation from turtle farm to rehabilitation and release centre has happened before, and this campaign was to try and make it happen again.

The Facts

At the Cayman Turtle Farm, 9,500 endangered green sea turtles are farmed for meat
Packed in filthy tanks, turtles get so stressed they bite and maim each other
It’s the last facility of its kind anywhere, and tourists are encouraged to handle turtles.

Carnival Cruise Line

Around 20% of the world’s cruise passengers travel on Carnival Cruise Line ships. The business is incredibly influential and must lead by example.

Cayman Turtle Centre heavily relies on cruise ships for customers. More than 200,000 people visit the attraction each year, and around three quarters are cruise liner passengers.

We’ve repeatedly contacted Carnival Cruise Line since January. But despite making our welfare concerns clear, the company won’t agree to stop taking boatloads of tourists to this cruel attraction.

Other tourism industry leaders such as TripAdvisor and Thomas Cook have listened to our supporters and made changes to their businesses to better protect wildlife. It’s time Carnival Cruise Line helped move the world to protect animals too.

Incredibly, 129,203 of you used your voice to demand Carnival Cruise Line does the right thing for these endangered wild animals.

One of the world’s cruellest attractions

Sea turtle farming is listed as one of the top 10 cruellest wildlife tourist attractions in our 2016 report Checking out of cruelty.

Conditions at the Cayman Turtle Centre make it impossible for turtles to express natural behaviours.

Turtles at Cayman Turtle Centre:

are mishandled by tourists using them as photo props for holiday selfies,
suffer severe wounds, skin lesions, injuries, stress, deformities and disease, often due to cramped conditions in tanks,
endure being on public display in shallow tanks where they cannot freely swim,
sometimes bite and maim each other, often due to stress,
and suffer genetic defects from in-breeding, such as being born without eyes.

The World Animal Protection Campaign

World Animal Protection campaigned for the Cayman Turtle Farm to become a rehabilitation centre, caring the turtles instead of raising them for meat. They should be releasing them back into the wild for future generations, and World Animal Protection engaged in extensive discussions with the organisation to get them to change their business practises.

A global campaign was launched too, highlighting supporters all over the world, calling out for them to make changes to the way that they work.

We’re urging Cayman Turtle Farm to stop meat production and start turtle rehabilitation and release
We’re asking supporters around the world to join our campaign.