Lolita the orca whale may return to Puget Sound MIAMI, Florida––Lolita, the 57-year-old orca whale who has become a white elephant after 53 years in the 67-year-old Miami Seaquarium, may be returning home to Puget Sound, Washington, before the end of 2023. That might afford Lolita, also called Tokitae at capture, a comfortable retirement in […]
The damage is done, by Helene Hesselager O’Barry
Editor’s note: Helene O’Barry, wife of longtime dolphin freedom advocate Ric O’Barry, follows up below on An open letter to James Cameron & Avatar crew by Ric O’Barry, posted on December 15, 2022. Meanwhile, clarifies Ric, “Dolphin Project is not boycotting the movie Avatar: The Way of Water. “The problem is with their obscene publicity […]
Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project celebrates a triple dolphin release in Bali
Culminates 12-year campaign BALI, Indonesia––Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project on September 3, 2022 celebrated the release into the open ocean of the bottlenose dolphins Johnny, Rocky, and Rambo, after three years of rehabilitation and a decade-long campaign to free them from the captive dolphin exhibition industry. “We’re tracking them now,” Ric O’Barry emailed to ANIMALS 24-7. […]
Fixing for a fight of Leviathans
The Makah Harpooners vs. Willy the Whale, alias Killer Keiko [Originally published in September 1998] NEAH BAY, Washington; NEWPORT, Oregon––If the September 1998 media drama underway in the Pacific Northwest was a professional wrestling match, it would be billed as the Makah Harpooners vs. Willy the Whale, alias Killer Keiko, orca star of the hit […]
Seaspiracy: seas, piracy, & Cowspiracy meet fishy business
Fishing industry screams bloody murder Reviewed by Merritt & Beth Clifton Seaspiracy, whose title is a fusion of “seas” and “piracy,” and a play on Cowspiracy, the 2014 independent blockbluster documentary also produced by Kip Anderson, on March 24, 2021 premiered worldwide on Netflix. Within 10 days Seaspiracy had become a runaway hit, seen by […]
Geoffrey Deckers & Marion Bienes brought animal rights to the Netherlands
Holocaust survivor Bienes inspired organization builder Deckers Award founded in Deckers’ name––see Comments, below. Geoffrey Deckers, 51, co-founder of the Dutch animal advocacy organization Een Dier Een Vriend [An Animal, A Friend], died suddenly on June 29, 2020. Deckers suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on November 20, 2017, but appeared to have made a full recovery. As […]
Bali: fighting rabies & dolphin captivity amid mud & ashes of a live volcano
Long uphill struggles pay off DENPASSAR, Bali, Indonesia––Fireballs and lava are no longer flying from Mount Agung, the reputed Balinese home of the gods, but smoke, steam, and noxious gases are still rising from thermal vents, keeping most humans at a distance, Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA) dog rescuers excepted. Rabies persists in three […]
Dolphin defender Ric O’Barry, cleared by Tokyo court, plans return to Japan
Three-judge panel rules O’Barry was wrongly barred entry & deported in 2016 TOKYO––“I’m gonna go back and do it again!” dolphin defender Ric O’Barry emailed to ANIMALS 24-7 late on October 3, 2019, after attorneys Megumi Wada and Takashi Takano won a Tokyo District Court ruling on O’Barry’s behalf that O’Barry is free to return to […]
Cockfighters vs. coal miners, Taiji vs. Hong Kong: animal suffering gets lost
What happens when animal issues are overwhelmed by current events? HARLAN COUNTY, Kentucky; TAIJI, Japan; BALI, Indonesia––A trainload of coal worth $1.4 million, blockaded for six weeks by illegally laid off miners whose last pay checks bounced, might at a glance appear to have nothing to do with an alleged cockfighting ring run by […]
Bali hotel dolphins rescued––but will they be freed?
10-year effort gets animals out of sub-par facility BALI, Indonesia––The Jakarta Animal Aid Network and Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project on August 7, 2019 celebrated the transfer of two dolphins and a menagerie of other animals from “deplorable conditions” at the Melka Excelsior Hotel in Lovina, North Bali, Indonesia to a variety of other Bali animal […]