A federal appeals court will entertain arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging the captivity of Lolita, the killer whale who has performed at the Miami Seaquarium for decades.Animal-rights activists have long argued that Lolita, captured in the Pacific Northwest decades ago, lives in a tank far smaller than those holding other captive killer whales. The Animal Legal Defense Fund and others sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture but lost.Their appeal will be heard Tuesday morning in Miami by judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 11th [Circuit]. Last month, federal authorities added the aging whale – who has been in captivity for more than 40 years – to the endangered species list, a protection given her wild family nearly a decade ago.
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Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Lolita the whale to face 11th Circuit today
David Ovalle has the story:
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9 comments:
what is a "whatle"
typo in the title, unless I a missing a joke.
Fixed.
Sometimes I sit and think, sometimes I just sit.
Free Lolita !!
It's a whale of a case but really, the whole thing seems fishy.
As a kid (long ago) I remember going to the Seaquarium and being saddened by the sight of such a majestic being confined in such a way. Same feeling with the big cats pacing back and forth at the old Crandon Park zoo.
Although we did delight in watching the monkeys hurl feces at un-suspecting tourists.
Did anyone go to OA? Who were the judges? I'm rooting for Lolita but I can't imagine that she has, as the judges say, a claim to relief that's plausible on its face.
When I worked for the AP in 1990s, I tried to get a package of stories in that centered on this subject and Lolita. Seaquarium made a call and the package never ran. Fact is the whale puddle - which it's nicknamed - does not conform to government standards. I recall the FDA actually is involved somehow. That said, Lolita hangs in there. I think it's a fallacy she can be rehabilitated to live in the wild though the one experiment that put a captive whale back in the ocean was derailed because the said whale was place with a non-family of whales. Each pod reportedly has its own language. Interesting case. Good post.
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