The Orca Lolita remains at the Miami Seaquarium, the dream of thousands of people asking for her release is shattered. Judges at the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals reject her petition to get her back to swimming in the open sea and make her forget the horror of captivity.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
The Orca Lolita remains at the Miami Seaquarium, the dream of thousands of people asking for her release is shattered. Judges at the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals reject her petition to get her back to swimming in the open sea and make her forget the horror of captivity.
It had been captured in 1970 at Penn Cove off Whidbey Island, from the sea to the Miami Aquarium, the smallest in America. From a wonderful sea creature to a freak in a narrow space between flashes and laughter, forced to play with a ball, tamed as a pet.
Lolita remained the only one, all the other killer whales died. In recent months, environmentalists had tried in every way to plead the cause of liberation, appealing to the fact that the animal had been captured in an area that belongs to the Lummi tribe.
According to a treaty of 1855, the natives have the right to protect everything that rises in their area, therefore also the sea and its inhabitants. Lolita had been captured right in the Salish Sea near the island of Orcas, home of the Lummi.
For poor Lolita, therefore, a hope seemed to have lit up: the tribe could become the keeper of the orca, a species which, as we know, is considered endangered. Lolita could have lived her last few years free in a maritime sanctuary, but things turned out differently. Lolita, the loneliest killer whale in the world, will remain in her prison ... probably until her death.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, The Animal Legal Defense Fund and Orca Network had appealed to the Federal Court for his release, but the judges ruled that there is no threat on the animal showing the violation of its lack of well-being inside. the aquarium and expressed strong doubts on how to move.
A decision that leaves you truly thrilled. Almost 50 years in captivity, snatched from her mother when she was just three years old, forced to entertain an audience, stressed by the limited space and totally immersed in solitude, are they not valid reasons for her to return to her natural habitat? The fact that Hugo, his fellow prisoner, committed suicide in 1980 by beating his head against the tub, isn't that a wake-up call for a malaise?
"This ruling condemns a very intelligent killer whale, deeply lonely and distressed by a life of physical and psychological damage, confined to a small concrete cell with no family, friends or freedom," says Jared Goodman, deputy general counsel for animal law. of the PETA Foundation.
Now the battle does not stop, the animal welfare organizations have prepared another cause, but in the meantime Lolita remains there, the victim of a business that is difficult to dismantle.
Read also:
- The aquarium closes, but the animals remain prisoners: there is also Honey, the loneliest dolphin in the world (PETITION)
- Sea Life: that's why we don't like the Rome aquarium
Dominella Trunfio
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