Free Lolita! A Whale Story

I aint an animal rights activist, but keeping a social animal in a pen that small suckz ballz. Just cause they 'think of her like a daughter' doesn't mean squat. I'm sure a lot of child molester dads use that argument "But I think of her like a daughter." Stuffing any animal of an intelligent nature into an enclosure is just bad.

put one of the people in a cage that was not captured and taken from thier family ,do we think as humans we have the right to capture animals and use them for entertainment, then lets go the next step HUMANS just like in the movies, Art Parry Marilla,NY

part 2
Keiko NEVER learned to fish for himself after all the years he had been in captivity. Ocean Futures Jean Michel Cousteau himself said; ???With Keiko, we tried to give back to the sea, to return a master ambassador who captured our attention and forced us to consider our actions. We tried to fix what we had broken. Ultimately, we must realize with great humility, that in nature, what we break cannot always be fixed.???
Keiko did swim from Iceland to Norway where he went to the most populated whaling community and hung out with the local PEOPLE for a few months until they found a ???suitable??? isolated place away from people. Keiko must have had a wonderful journey however after 4 years of rehab and MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars Jean Michelle Cousteau reluctantly turned the care of Keiko over to the Humane Society of America whose president had a specific degree in Cetacean behavior and she was an ???expert??? that truly believed they were giving Keiko the best care possible.
The fact of the matter is they were under feeding Keiko by about 100 pounds a day and after only a short period of time in the care of the Humane Society of America Keiko died alone in a cove with a few caretakers. Poor Keiko rejected by other whales and removed from his human family who once free he went back to be with PEOPLE on his own free will. So after all of the millions and millions of dollars that small children sent in one dollar at a time to FREE Willy he died free while his captive buddies are still alive in aquariums today. Of what you might ask? We don't know because the Humane Society REFUSED to do a necropsy. After all that time we lost not only our incredible ambassador Orca Keiko but the knowledge we could have learned that could actually help other Orcas like Lolita???s possible retirement in the PNW, isn???t that special.

part 1
How wonderful that Lolita is getting press, HOWEVER I need to let the readers know that you have incorrectly stated a multitude of things so here is some of the TRUTH about the misinformation written in the article. All of the information I???m writing can be easily found when doing research on the internet or at an actual library. The statistics are taken from the book by Hoyt, Erich. Orca, The Whale Called Killer , ISBN 0-920656-25-0, Appendix 6.
The most resent owners of Sea World, Anheuser Bush, had NOTHING to do with Tokitae/Lolita's capture. The capture was done in Penn Cove WA in August of 1970 where a total of 8 whales were captured who went to various Aquariums??? all over the world. LOLITA/Tokitae went to MIAMI SEAQUARIUM in FL. None of the Orcas in that August of 1970 group went to any of the Sea World parks at time of capture.
On page two of your article the first paragraph is all mixed up and is giving misinformation. The CAPTORS of the Orcas or as you stated in the article as ???contractor??? names are, T.Griffin and D. Goldsberry, and in fact it was the Seattle Aquarium who was the one Aquarium that used the ???contractors??? more than Sea World of San Diego???s five UCLA fraternity brothers that founded the park in 1964 and who were owners at the time Lolita was captured NOT Anheuser-Bush. The FEDERAL Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 went into affect and all captures halted in the United States. Orca captures shifted to Canada from 1972 until 1977 when the Canadian government halted all captures off Canadian waters with the cooperation of the Governor of Washington State and the Orca capture trade moved to Iceland.

part 1
How wonderful that Lolita is getting press, HOWEVER I need to let the readers know that you have incorrectly stated a multitude of things so here is some of the TRUTH about the misinformation written in the article. All of the information I???m writing can be easily found when doing research on the internet or at an actual library. The statistics are taken from the book by Hoyt, Erich. Orca, The Whale Called Killer , ISBN 0-920656-25-0, Appendix 6.
The most resent owners of Sea World, Anheuser Bush, had NOTHING to do with Tokitae/Lolita's capture. The capture was done in Penn Cove WA in August of 1970 where a total of 8 whales were captured who went to various Aquariums??? all over the world. LOLITA/Tokitae went to MIAMI SEAQUARIUM in FL. None of the Orcas in that August of 1970 group went to any of the Sea World parks at time of capture.
On page two of your article the first paragraph is all mixed up and is giving misinformation. The CAPTORS of the Orcas or as you stated in the article as ???contractor??? names are, T.Griffin and D. Goldsberry, and in fact it was the Seattle Aquarium who was the one Aquarium that used the ???contractors??? more than Sea World of San Diego???s five UCLA fraternity brothers that founded the park in 1964 and who were owners at the time Lolita was captured NOT Anheuser-Bush. The FEDERAL Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 went into affect and all captures halted in the United States. Orca captures shifted to Canada from 1972 until 1977 when the Canadian government halted all captures off Canadian waters with the cooperation of the Governor of Washington State and the Orca capture trade moved to Iceland.

many of the behaviors whales and dolphins perform in capativity are not something that they would naturally do in the wild, such as coming completely out of the water, or "Tail walking" either forward or backwards. I am all for the wild staying wild, or releasing recently captured. 40 years is a long, long time. I agree that her original pod members are gone. the those that make up the current pod would not reconize her . There is the possibity of rejection or worse they could kill her.

Comparing the size of her tank to that which is now mandated, it might be better to spend all that money on increasing her habitat to include part of the Biscyne Bay as the enclosure.

While laudable in theory, the question that appears unaddressed is whether Lolita would survive if released. Many seem to presume that an animal that has arguably thrived in captivity would automatically make the adjustment necessary to sustain themselves in the wild after a 40 year period. Becuase she has survived this long does not necessariily mean that members of her original pod still survive, as it is common for animals kept in captivity to outlive those in the wild. Accordingly, while orcas are notably social animals, there is no guarantee that the orcas she would find in the wild would be accepting of her. While release sounds wonderful, I would hate to be the person that released such a magnificent animal with the best of intentions, only to see it die a preventable death.

Yes! It's time for Lolita to return to her family. If Lolita is living -- there's no doubt that many of her family members are also still alive. Lolita is a very intelligent and sensitive earthling, and she will be overjoyed to be reunited with family and friends -- just as we've witessed the incredible joy of reunited elephants after decades of separation while being cruelly treated in the circus.

Yes. Let's return Lolita to her family -- if Lolita is still living, many of her family members must still be, too! Lolita is an intelligent and sensitive being, just like any other earthling. I have no doubt that Lolita will recognize her family and friends immediately and be incredibly overjoyed -- as we've witnessed the pure joy when elephants reunite after decades of separation while being treated cruely in the circus.

I am outraged that Lolita will be ripped out of the 'arms' of her family again. It wasn't enough the first time, now 38 years later another group of people want to rip her from a 38 year old environment in Florida where she is healthy and happy. She has apparently bonded with her trainers and environment enough to keep her healthy.
The chances are Lolita will suffer from the move, losing her constant interaction with her trainers (her adopted pod) become depressed and begin to fail. Of the 45 Orcas stolen from Puget Sound waters all are dead. Only Lolita remains. It is my opinion, this move with kill her within a year after being moved.humansolita

I am outraged that Lolita will be ripped out of the 'arms' of her family again. It wasn't enough the first time, now 38 years later another group of people want to rip her from a 38 year old environment in Florida where she is healthy and happy. She has apparently bonded with her trainers and environment enough to keep her healthy.
The chances are Lolita will suffer from the move, losing her constant interaction with her trainers (her adopted pod) become depressed and begin to fail. Of the 45 Orcas stolen from Puget Sound waters all are dead. Only Lolita remains. It is my opinion, this move with kill her within a year after being moved.humansolita

I am outraged that Lolita will be ripped out of the 'arms' of her family again. It wasn't enough the first time, now 38 years later another group of people want to rip her from a 38 year old environment in Florida where she is healthy and happy. She has apparently bonded with her trainers and environment enough to keep her healthy.
The chances are Lolita will suffer from the move, losing her constant interaction with her trainers (her adopted pod) become depressed and begin to fail. Of the 45 Orcas stolen from Puget Sound waters all are dead. Only Lolita remains. It is my opinion, this move with kill her within a year after being moved.humansolita

I am outraged that Lolita will be ripped out of the 'arms' of her family again. It wasn't enough the first time, now 38 years later another group of people want to rip her from a 38 year old environment in Florida where she is healthy and happy. She has apparently bonded with her trainers and environment enough to keep her healthy.
The chances are Lolita will suffer from the move, losing her constant interaction with her trainers (her adopted pod) become depressed and begin to fail. Of the 45 Orcas stolen from Puget Sound waters all are dead. Only Lolita remains. It is my opinion, this move with kill her within a year after being moved.humansolita

I am outraged that Lolita will be ripped out of the 'arms' of her family again. It wasn't enough the first time, now 38 years later another group of people want to rip her from a 38 year old environment in Florida where she is healthy and happy. She has apparently bonded with her trainers and environment enough to keep her healthy.
The chances are Lolita will suffer from the move, losing her constant interaction with her trainers (her adopted pod) become depressed and begin to fail. Of the 45 Orcas stolen from Puget Sound waters all are dead. Only Lolita remains. It is my opinion, this move with kill her within a year after being moved.humansolita

I am outraged that Lolita will be ripped out of the 'arms' of her family again. It wasn't enough the first time, now 38 years later another group of people want to rip her from a 38 year old environment in Florida where she is healthy and happy. She has apparently bonded with her trainers and environment enough to keep her healthy.
The chances are Lolita will suffer from the move, losing her constant interaction with her trainers (her adopted pod) become depressed and begin to fail. Of the 45 Orcas stolen from Puget Sound waters all are dead. Only Lolita remains. It is my opinion, this move with kill her within a year after being moved.humansolita

Lolita was stolen from her family because our selfish greed to see her jump through hoops in an aquarium. If the aquaruim at sea world really cared about the welfare of lolita and all sea animals they wouldn't steal them from the oceans, force them to live in sterile environments in cramped lonely 'cages' And if those same people who argue they want there kids to see a whale or a dolphin..go on a tour buy a video but don't force an animal to suffer because of our /your selfish desire. FREE LOLITA and all captive animals.

I grew up in San Diego California and thought it was normal to killer whales in a tank witht here dorsal fins hunched over. I can remember as a kid that i could not wait for school to be out for the summer as I would spend just about every waking moment i was allowed at Sea World. As I grew older and began to see dolphins and whales in captivity I use to wonder about there familys. The first time i remember thinking maybe this is not where they belong was when I saw the Movie The Big Blue. As I got older I worked on a small cruise ship and had the pleasure of going to the San Juan Islands and one night after dinner we came upon a pod of Killer whales in there lement as they were ment to be I stood in Awe and cried.

We all know the story of Keiko and how that ended. Its good to want to help Lolita but lets face the facts she has been in captivity for 37 years being fed by humans everyday and does not have regular orca behaviour now. I think the intentions are good but thing it would spell disaster for Lolita to be now set free. For all the money Lolita has made the park the least they could do is build her an aquarium that would accomodate her and not put her on display so much. I think everyone should make a trip and do as Island Resident said below and got to a land based whale watching place and see therm in all there glory.

I grew up in San Diego California and thought it was normal to killer whales in a tank witht here dorsal fins hunched over. I can remember as a kid that i could not wait for school to be out for the summer as I would spend just about every waking moment i was allowed at Sea World. As I grew older and began to see dolphins and whales in captivity I use to wonder about there familys. The first time i remember thinking maybe this is not where they belong was when I saw the Movie The Big Blue. As I got older I worked on a small cruise ship and had the pleasure of going to the San Juan Islands and one night after dinner we came upon a pod of Killer whales in there lement as they were ment to be I stood in Awe and cried.

We all know the story of Keiko and how that ended. Its good to want to help Lolita but lets face the facts she has been in captivity for 37 years being fed by humans everyday and does not have regular orca behaviour now. I think the intentions are good but thing it would spell disaster for Lolita to be now set free. For all the money Lolita has made the park the least they could do is build her an aquarium that would accomodate her and not put her on display so much. I think everyone should make a trip and do as Island Resident said below and got to a land based whale watching place and see therm in all there glory.