The PETA organization and other groups in favor of animal rights lamented the death of the orca Lolita in the Miami aquarium, after more than 50 years captive in “a concrete cell” and when its release into waters was being prepared. from Pacific.
Animal activists denounced that the dimensions of the pond in which it was found were not adequate for a marine mammal of its size, and that it also suffered from loneliness, since there are no other orcas in that aquarium.
Lolita’s death came a few months after Miami-Dade County authorities and the company that owns the aquarium announced that the orca was finally going to be transferred to the waters of the North Pacific to be released.
Lolita was captured in that area in 1970 and taken in September of that year to the Miami Seaquarium, which was opened in 1955 on an island in Biscayne Bay and was the setting for the famous television series “Flipper.”
For decades, Lolita’s jumps before her audience made her the great star of the Miami Seaquarium, but at the same time, a symbol of the fight against life in captivity.
“We should be ashamed, and they were supposed to let her go next year. I am very sad about what happened, and the people who are here are also very upset,” said Maria del Pilar, a Miami resident who was protesting this Sunday in front of the Seaquarium.
“Plans to move her came too late, and Lolita was denied even one minute of freedom in her 53 years of captivity,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement.
He added that for years animal groups “begged the Miami Seaquarium to end Lolita’s hellish life in a concrete cell and release her to a coastal sanctuary,” where she could have reunited with the orca believed to be her mother. .
After the death of the orca, his departure from the Seaquarium was very different from what had been designed as a release plan. She was first lifted out of the pond by a crane, and then transported in a refrigerated truck to the University of Georgia.
The orca, also known as Tokitae or Toki and who is estimated to be 57 years old, died on Friday of an apparent kidney condition and after showing serious signs of discomfort in the last two days, as confirmed on social networks by the Miami Seaquarium.
Edward Albor, president of The Dolphin Company, the firm that owns the aquarium in the city of Miami, pointed out that the death comes when his transfer to the state of Washington was planned in the next 18 to 24 months.
In a statement, the PETA president called on the Seaquarium to “continue with plans to send Lolita’s dolphin tankmate to a marine sanctuary, along with all other dolphins, before the death toll rises.”
“Let all wild animals be free!” Newkirk exclaimed, after calling on the SeaWorld theme park in Orlando to “release Corky the orca, who has been imprisoned in tiny tanks for almost 54 years, before he shares the same fate as Lolita”.
The native Lummi tribe, based in Washington state and which for years has worked for the release of Lolita in their home waters, also mourned the orca’s death.
“Our hearts go out to all those impacted by this news; our hearts go out to his family,” said Lummi President Tony Hillaire in a statement, who also expressed his solidarity with the members of this tribe “who gave their hearts and souls ” to bring the killer whale back to its birth home.
Meanwhile, dozens of people continue to arrive outside the Miami Seaquarium and bring flowers for Lolita as her death shocks an entire community.
