Change.org Petition: Captive whale’s life is at risk - Keep Lolita in Florida!

Keep Lolita in Florida! 36,782 have signed Valerie Greene’s petition. Let’s get to 50,000!

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At a press conference on Thursday, March 30th, the mayor of Miami, the owners of Miami Seaquarium, Friends of Lolita, and Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, promised to set Lolita the killer whale free to her home in Puget Sound.  We are a group called Truth 4 Toki, composed of 35 marine mammal experts with a collective 350 years of experience. We are Toki’s current and former trainers, veterinarians and caretakers. If you genuinely care about Toki, please listen to us.  Lolita, or Tokitae (Toki), has lived at the Miami Seaquarium for more than 50 years. Over the decades, many have talked about improving Toki’s conditions, but nothing has happened, and the press conference laid out no executable plan of action but expect her to be moved to her home waters in 6-9 months.  We saw what happened with Keiko—the whale from the movie Free Willy when a billionaire philanthropist got involved in an activist led attempt to free him. It took over 6 years and millions of dollars to free Keiko. Keiko died alone, never successfully integrating with wild killer whales and constantly seeking out human interaction. If she can no longer remain at the Miami Seaquarium she should be transported to Shamu Stadium at SeaWorld Orlando where she can remain for the rest of her life, along with the two Pacific White-Sided dolphins she’s lived with for the last 30 years: Lii and Loke.  Let’s not make Lolita suffer the same fate as Keiko.  A move of any kind is likely to kill her. She is 58 years old and battles chronic illness and is not a candidate for release. She is not your symbol, your Cal Ripken Jr. or Pam Anderson.  Jim Irsay—if you are so moved by Lolita as you claim you are, listen to us. Pay the money to get her to SeaWorld Orlando where the experts can continue to provide the standard of care she deserves. You admitted Keiko’s release was a failure—don’t make the same mistake with Toki.  SeaWorld Orlando—let’s make this happen. As the industry leader in marine mammal care and the only facility capable of helping her, you have a duty to Toki to intervene. You rescue animals still? Rescue her. It will take years to build her new pool that’s close by—SeaWorld has an existing structure that she could integrate into with the least amount of stress to her. Come on SeaWorld! Lolita has survived this long because of us. So please listen to us. Her life depends on it.

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