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Tell Secretary Vilsack - Tokitae Needs Help NOW!
Dear John,
Toki (also known as Tokitae or Lolita) has been languishing in a tiny tank at Miami Seaquarium (MSQ) for over 50 years. She is one of two captive orcas in the world over 55 years old, having been captured in the waters of Washington state in 1970 as a juvenile.
Toki has suffered from her solitary state (her orca companion, Hugo, died in 1980) and lack of space for decades, but her caretakers no doubt loved her in their way. However, in 2014, MSQ was sold to an international amusement park company and her care team was replaced over time. In June 2021, the US Department of Agriculture sent an inspector to the facility after the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) alerted the department to several dolphin and sea lion deaths within the past 2-3 years. NMFS felt the spate of deaths, as well as their causes (several died from blunt trauma inflicted by other animals) was disturbing.
The inspection report from June has just been made public. It describes a litany of horrors, including the trauma deaths, which were the result of MSQ management paying no attention to which dolphins ended up in what tanks, resulting in fighting among incompatible individuals violent enough to cause injury and death. Several animals, including Toki, were fed rotting fish for 4-8 days--presumably because MSQ management didn't want the money they spent on it to go to "waste." Food portions for Toki and some of the dolphins were also decreased for unspecified reasons, leading to concerns about inadequate caloric intake and dehydration (marine mammals get their freshwater from the food they eat). Water quality declined in several enclosures, leading to health problems in the resident animals.
The facility's attending veterinarian told management about all of these problems and urged changes, but the vet was ignored by MSQ management and eventually terminated.
Several of the problems at MSQ represent blatant and extreme infractions of the regulations governing care and handling of captive marine mammals. Yet MSQ still has its USDA license to operate and hold these animals.
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What You Can Do
Please write Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack ([link removed]), who is ultimately in charge of how facilities such as MSQ are regulated. The animals at MSQ need the USDA to mount a proper and vigorous enforcement action against this facility--up to and including confiscating the marine mammals and sending them to a place that can provide them with more space, appropriate companions, necessary veterinary care, and proper husbandry!
After signing, please be sure to share this eAlert with your family, friends, and co-workers and encourage them to contact Secretary Vilsack too. As always, thank you very much for your help!
Sincerely,
Cathy Liss
President
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Photo by Ingrid Visser
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Animal Welfare Institute
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The Animal Welfare Institute is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 1951 and dedicated to reducing animal suffering caused by people. We seek better treatment of animals everywhere: in the laboratory, on the farm, in commerce, at home, and in the wild.
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