Tentative plans by an American theme-park company to reportedly resurrect shelved plans to open a SeaWorld adventure park in Dubai are meeting mounting opposition over alleged animal rights abuses which the firm categorically denies.

Orlando-based SeaWorld confirmed in May that it has inked a tentative deal to explore building a new park in the Middle East, a venture that would be its first international deal outside the United States.

Proprietor of 11 parks across the US, SeaWorld in a May conference call with analysts confirmed that it signed a deal with an unnamed partner in the region to ?assess the viability of a multi-park development in the Middle East? but Dubai has not been confirmed publicly as the future host.

According to US media reports, SeaWorld President and Chief Executive Jim Atchison told analysts he had high confidence in its new Middle East partner that he described as a firm with ?an established track record of opening and operating world-class attractions?.

A SeaWorld adventure park was once on the table in Dubai in conjunction with a larger World of Discovery theme park to open by 2012 but the plan never materialised in the fallout of the global economic crisis sparked in 2008.

An online petition, meanwhile, hosted by social media group Care 2 is taking aim at a possible Dubai-based SeaWorld citing alleged problems with the company.

The petition has collected 32,663 signatures from points across the globe, from Singapore and Austria to the UAE and Argentina.