Free Lolita

Free Lolita
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Lolita in her woefully small tank.

Lolita in her woefully small tank.

Image Credit: @save.cetaceans

During hurricane Irma, my parents were among those fortunate enough to evacuate out of Florida. Unfortunately, not all living beings were able to or even allowed to escape this fearsome hurricane.

One such unlucky life belonged to the killer whale named Lolita, also known as Tokitae.

She was stolen from the wild at the very young age of four. Still dependent on her mother and family. To this day, her mother, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, and other family members (who weren’t stolen or killed) still live in the Pacific Northwest where she was found and are in fact, one of the best-studied, and well-known groups of killer whales in the world.

She has been forced to live, [read: exist], in the smallest killer whale tank in all of America, at the Miami Seaquarium.

Her entire existence is in a tank less than four times her length, and less than twice her width - taking account the large platform that obstructs the full-width of the tank. She performs the same inane show several times a day seven days a week, and is fed dead fish and all kinds of other nutrients and medicines.

As if this existence weren’t tragic enough, during Hurricane Irma, she was disregarded, abandoned, and left alone at the Miami Seaquarium in her tiny tank, which is roughly as deep as is she long, while 100+ mile-per-hour gusts of wind and pounding rain came to the southern coast of Florida.

While her caretakers took shelter, she was alone.

She had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, nowhere to seek protection. In fact, her 20-foot long body is as deep as her tank.

New images of Lolita and her tank have been circulating since Hurricane Irma swept through, showing that she is alive, and her water is murky. However, who knows what, if any projectiles hit her, or what additional psychological trauma she experienced from this, being alone, without the safety and security of her family, without the ability to hide or dive from the storm.

There have been news stories and images of dogs being left in cages, or tied to trees, left to drown while their owners fled to safety without them. There is threat of prosecution to those who left their animals behind. The outcry has been quite amazing.

Yet, Lolita was similarly left alone to brave this horrific storm, in a tiny tank where debris or structural failure could have held her under water, or totaled her, frankly, inadequate tank.

Where are the threats of prosecution here! Certainly there are instances where corporations are treated as individuals. If individuals who have left their pets behind can be prosecuted, why NOT the owners of the Miami Seaquarium?

If you’re angry about this as I am. Please sign and share this petition I just created!

Her family and her mother are still alive. A sea pen awaits her, where she can be rehabilitated, taught to catch live fish and how to be a wild orca. It can work. Ric O’Barry of Dolphin Project has rehabilitated and released wild dolphins, Keiko the killer whale from “Free Willy” was rehabilitated, released, and lived wild until his death. It IS more than possible!

She could even eventually be reintroduced to her family pod, where she could live the rest of her potentially 50+ years of life in peace, with love, and with her own kind, with freedom, liberty, and choice. A relative of hers, nicknamed "granny” lived to the ripe old age of 105.

Lolita has served her time, despite having done no wrong. For 47 years, since 1970, she have lived in this tiny fishbowl. She has been mentally and physically abused, emotionally traumatized, left in solitary confinement, and endangered with who knows how many storms during this time. She is now 51 years old; but she could still have MANY more years of life.

Any “concern” for her at this point by the Miami Seaquarium, is only concern for their bottom dollar.

The mayor of Miami would like to see her rehabilitated and released, as would hundreds of thousands of people.

Could you imagine being left alone to brave Hurricane Irma?

We urge and demand that the owners of the Miami Seaquarium do the right thing once and for all, release her and give her the life she actually deserves. Give her freedom. #FreeLolita!

Petition: Prosecute Miami Seaquarium for anbandoning Lolita (and other dolphins) during Hurricane Irma

Twitter: recipe4survival

Follow Dana Ellis Hunnes on Twitter: www.twitter.com/recipe4survival

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