12-Year-Old Girl Protests SeaWorld at Rose Parade and Doesn’t Plan to Stop Despite Arrest

Rose McCoy, a 12-year-old Animal rights activist and straight-A student from New York, is back again, speaking out against SeaWorld and its treatment of captive orcas.

On Wednesday, McCoy and 18 other activists were arrested at the 125^th Annual Rose Parade in California for protesting SeaWorld’s “Sea of Surprises” float, a demonstration that was organized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

For a quick little refresher: McCoy is the same 12-year-old who hopped the barricade at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in protest of SeaWorld’s T-Day float. She chanted “Boycott SeaWorld” and waved a sign with the same message. In total, her protest lasted about 30 seconds before cops escorted her back to her proud mother.

“One of the cops said I ruined the parade, which actually made my day,” McCoy told the NY Daily News.

McCoy wasn’t arrested this time, but her subsequent arrest at the Rose Parade doesn’t seem to have phased her. Instead, it appears to have actually fueled her passion for animals even more.

“I’m definitely going to keep on doing this,” she said via laist in response to the Rose Parade protest. “I’m going to fight SeaWorld as long as they keep orcas in what’s equivalent as a prison.”

McCoy, like now six-year-old Cash, was initially influenced to speak out about SeaWorld’s treatment of its orcas by what she had witnessed in “Blackfish,” a film that reconfirmed her stance against animal captivity.

“I want every family to boycott SeaWorld and never give a dime of their money to an industry that would make a profit off of the suffering of other living beings,” McCoy said.

Many kids grow up being animal lovers, but such fervor that McCoy displays for these issues at her age is usually not something we hear about every day. But perhaps we’ll witness more kids putting on their activism hats and gloves as animal protection issues enter the mainstream more frequently.

In the mean time, we wish you luck, McCoy, and keep up the good work for animals!

Know of any other stellar kids standing up for animals? Celebrate them by telling us and other Green Monsters who they are with a comment below!

Image source: PETA