John,
Now more than 50 years old, Lolita has lived at the Miami Seaquarium since her capture from Puget Sound in 1970.
Lolita is kept in too small a space which also fails to provide sufficient shelter from the sun. She has also been deprived of proper orca companionship since 1980, when her last companion, Hugo, rammed his own head against the tank’s wall until he died.
John, your gift to the Animal Legal Defense Fund today will make twice the impact on our fight to help Lolita — and all of our important legal work on behalf of abused, neglected, and exploited animals across the country.
The conditions Lolita is being kept in are clear violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), but despite the legal protection Lolita is entitled to under the AWA, the USDA failed to enforce the law and rubber-stamped the park’s license — allowing the Seaquarium to continually harm Lolita without facing consequences.
The captivity of wild animals in cruel conditions is the result of a legal system that too often regards animals as mere property.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund filed an appeal after a district court dismissed our lawsuit against the USDA for unlawfully transferring the park’s license to a new owner without requiring AWA compliance — we refuse to give up the fight for Lolita, but we need your help to win.
