Washington, April 11 (IANS): The SeaWorld in the US state of Florida has been sued for keeping its killer whales drugged and suffering from sunburn in shallow pools, a media report said on Saturday.

Joyce Kuhl, who visited the park in 2013, is demanding reimbursement for a $97 ticket for millions of visitors through a federal class action lawsuit, The Independent reported.

Kuhl said she would not have bought a ticket had she known the about the mistreatment of the orcas and the poor conditions.

The lawsuit has alleged that SeaWorld has made millions of dollars in profit via "false, misleading and deceptive business practices".

It has also accused the Orlando-based theme park of keeping orcas in holding pools as shallow as eight feet where they suffer from sunburn and alleged that employees have to disguise the injuries by painting black zinc oxide onto the mammals, the daily said.

Kuhl's lawsuit also contends that in the wild killer whales typically live between 30 and 50 years, but most orcas at SeaWorld die in their teens or early 20s.