Free Lolita! A Whale Story

Keiko died alone alone, after settling in a Norwegian fjord, but he died free.
I lived in Mexico City a long time ago and saw the misserable conditions Keiko had to endure during its captivity.
When Keiko was released, he started to exhibit behavioral patterns that orcas exhibit on the wild, forraging and hunting, and establishing a hunting and living territory.Keiko recovered somo of its dignity as a living creature. I believe he deserved at least that.
Keiko died alone alone, in a Norwegian fjord, but he was going to die alone, anyway, in a small SMALL fish tank thousands of miles way from the sea. Just think about it.

Keiko died alone alone, after settling in a Norwegian fjord, but he died free.
I lived in Mexico City a long time ago and saw the misserable conditions Keiko had to endure during its captivity.
When Keiko was released, he started to exhibit behavioral patterns that orcas exhibit on the wild, forraging and hunting, and establishing a hunting and living territory.Keiko recovered somo of its dignity as a living creature. I believe he deserved at least that.
Keiko died alone alone, in a Norwegian fjord, but he was going to die alone, anyway, in a small SMALL fish tank thousands of miles way from the sea. Just think about it.

Leave Lolita alone. She is where she is and probably safer than in Puget Sound. People need to get a better life and maybe spend time careing about their own families or their neighbors.

We need to look at the broader issue of how to save the endangered Orca whales that frequent the Puget Sound. The Southern Resident orcas - Lolita's family members - that remain in "the wild" do not get to live a wild existence. Instead they are hounded by whale watching boats from morning to night. This interferes with their ability to feed, mate, and teach the younger Orcas how to find food. The fight here should be to protect the orcas that are still wild. Instead, we're "loving them to death" and supporting an industry -- the whale watching industry - that is complicit in the orcas' decline. The sound levels from the whale watching boats, which travel in packs and race to surround the whales, is similar to that of VERY loud motorcycles - it's inconceivable that we would encourage a pack of Harleys to hound endangered wolves, yet that's how ludicrous the situation is. Returning Lolita to her family would simply give them one more whale to chase.

A few years ago, the residents of San Juan Island signed a petition to end the ongoing harassment of the Orca whales. (Let's call boat-based whale watching what it is - harassment.) That petition to end the serial chasing of the Southern Residents is still the most popular petition ever circulated in the islands.

There is a wonderful park on San Juan Island that offers wonderful land-based whale watching. From Lime Kiln Park, on the rare occasions before the whale watching boats have surrounded them, you can see whales in their natural environment.

let her be, leave her alone, you took her life and family away from her, you forcibly adopted her to make millions for you, now you just want to throw her back, shame on you, this poor animal has been wrecked, the humane thing to do is to get her a bigger tank, let her live her life in the confines she is used to, comfortably, too much what about this, what about that, plain and simple, in the wild she will die, stop experimenting on her, you've done enough damage, get the residual of the millions you've made and get her the new tank, make peace with mother nature and let this poor animal live out her life. she is too old to take a let see what happens attitude. we all know the answers. stop kidding yourselves, experts and non-experts alike..... period!

let her be, leave her alone, you took her life and family away from her, you forcibly adopted her to make millions for you, now you just want to throw her back, shame on you, this poor animal has been wrecked, the humane thing to do is to get her a bigger tank, let her live her life in the confines she is used to, comfortably, too much what about this, what about that, plain and simple, in the wild she will die, stop experimenting on her, you've done enough damage, get the residual of the millions you've made and get her the new tank, make peace with mother nature and let this poor animal live out her life. she is too old to take a let see what happens attitude. we all know the answers. stop kidding yourselves, experts and non-experts alike..... period!

Let me first state that I don't believe in taking animals from the wild for entertainment purposes, however, I feel strongly about leaving animals that have been in captivity for the majority of their lives, to remain in captivity.

I completely understand and have sincere compassion for people who feel so stongly that Lolita should be reunited with her family and return to her native home in the wild. Unfortunately, that is not the best decision for Lolita now. She has adapted to life in captivity for over 38 years. Her total health and well-being is at huge risk trying to have her adapt at such an older age to huge physiological changes, not to mention, the amount of mental and physical stress that will be induced upon her. She has already been torn away from her home and way of life once before, and to do that to her again, could be detrimental.

Lolita has manged to live for 38 years in her current enclosure and I don't feel she would have lasted this long if she were in horrible, inhumane conditions. I am also willing to bet that her caretakers and trainers give her the best care possible and dedicate thier jobs to her over all well-being and health.

I feel that everyone fighting to "free" Lolita have the right intentions, but they just need to direct them into more realistic and feasible efforts that won't jeopardize her life. Their efforts need to be directed towards giving Lolita an enclosure they feel is more suitable for her size, or possibly relocating her to Sea World Orlando, where she can slowly be introduced to a captive orca pod.

We cannot naively attribute our own thoughts and feelings to Lolita's. The best we can do is to make sure that her life is fulfilled to the greatest extent that we scientifically, and historically know how to do.

Lolita and other captive orcas, remain ambassadors for their species. Utilizing their awesome capabilites and impact, they have the power to captivate people and bring them a better sense of awareness. This in turn, will allocate a better future for animals in the wild.

I stongly encourage people who care so much about returning these animals to the wild, to direct their passionate beliefs towards preventing future animals from being caught or taken from the wild. It seems more sensible...and as previous experience has taught us...not always the things we want for these magnificent animals, are the things they want for themselves.

They would put in a pen much like Keiko's first, to adapt her, then re-teach her to eat wild, living fish and the pen would be near where the Southern Residents come nearby where they would hear each other calling, and re-intergrate her slowly. L pod is very easy to track in the summer. I don't believe these animals forget anything. Lolita's been known to remember old training signals that aren't used anymore from 20 years or more ago, and if she can remember those, she can remember to be a wild whale. They never forget. All captive whales should be considered wild anyway, because that is their nature. They are not domesticated animals, should always be handled with care during their care. Never underestimate the thinking power of these animals, they will definately surprise you!

The instinct for survival of the whales is 100 times stronger than men,
Lolita will survive simply because the ocean is her environment If a man after being in jail 36 years is freed and can be adapted to back society, whales more easily can be adapted simply by its high survival instincts.


Dr.Mukhametov

Russia

How on earth did this make the news. She would die of starvation if freed. She would probably be afraid of all the other animals and freak out in such a wide open space.

How on earth did this make the news. She would die of starvation if freed. She would probably be afraid of all the other animals and freak out in such a wide open space.

It is outrageous that they keep her in such a small tank, and that they view it as humane. She needs to be freed?????????????????????

This is as GAY as two Jew boys having sex with each other. Why is it even in the news?

I agree let her go I do not understand why humans think they have the right to control, cage, burn, and kill anything and everything on this earth.

She deserves her freedom like all living beings do. Let her enjoy her remaining years with her family in the wild.

I can only imagine after being in captivity for 38 years he is probably better off where he is. I can't imagine a whale that has been fed, groomed, and treated with love and is used to the family/team of people that take care of him will be able to be as wild and what not as other whales in the wild are. I'm sure he will either not last long in the wild or be more unhappy than he is now. Usually I am all for releasing animals back where they belong but after almost 40 years I believe he is where he belongs and that it's probably the safest thing to do.