Both Alan Cooper & John Pippin, M.D. were felled by long struggles with debilitating illness It would be difficult to imagine two animal advocates with less in common than Alan Cooper and John Pippin, M.D., except that both were veterans of more than 20 years in animal advocacy on a variety of fronts, and died […]
Big fish, little fish, red fish, blue fish: hard times for aquariums
Hurricane damage, Animal Welfare Act fines, & bad publicity drive out even “Codfather” Vince Covino SARASOTA, Florida; MYSTIC, Connecticut; NIAGARA, Ontario––The Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida is plugging ahead with a $130 million upgrade and expansion of facilities scheduled to open before the site reaches 70 years of age in early 2025. […]
Lolita: not the orca whale activists thought she was. Her truth was worse.
Lolita, also called Tokitae, even if freed, had no known family or home to return to GREENBANK, Washington––What if almost everything you ever thought you knew about the orca whale Lolita turned out to be false? That would not make Lolita a false killer whale, a member of the lookalike genus Pseudorca, including one living […]
Lolita was not just a money-making spectacle! by Beth Clifton
Arguably, it is because of Lolita that we no longer refer to the orcas as “killer whales.” Amid the sea of crocodile tears shed by those who in a variety of ways have exploited the life and death of Lolita the orca, and continue to exploit her memory, I feel strongly that I have something […]
The orca whale Lolita, 57, spent 53 years in prison without killing anyone
Jailed at four years old, Lolita spent 45 years at the Miami Seaquarium in solitary confinement MIAMI, Florida––The orca whale known to the world for most of her life as Lolita, 57, died on August 18, 2023 at the Miami Seaquarium, 53 years after her capture at Penn Cove, Washington. Initially dubbed Tokitae upon capture, […]
A “win-win” for Lolita, & even more for those promoting her homecoming
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 […]
Getting Shelly Home, by Yasmin Mohamad (Wavy Adventures Book One)
Illustrated by Stephen Bibb. 80 pages, 2022. $15.99 paperback, ebook $7.99 Barnes & Noble, $8.99 Kindle. Reviewed by Beth Clifton. Getting Shelly Home author Yasmin Mohamad believes that children learn best when they are having fun. Mohamad wrote the children’s book Getting Shelly Home with this in mind. Getting Shelly Home is the first of […]
Could Lolita, permanently off exhibit, outlive the Miami Seaquarium itself?
Terms of exhibition permit suggest the late Russ Rector was almost right in betting he would outlive the aging Miami Seaquarium, even if Lolita did not MIAMI, Florida––MV Leisure, the new owner of the 67-year-old Miami Seaquarium, will not be allowed to exhibit the 56-year-old orca whale Lolita and her Pacific white-sided dolphin companion Lili as […]
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 […]
Vaquita captures suspended after death of female of breeding age
Two captures with only frozen tissue samples to show for it (Updates coverage of November 6, 2017.) SAN FELIPE, Mexico––VaquitaCPR and SEMARNAT, the Mexican Secretariat for the Environment & Natural Resources, have indefinitely suspended attempts to bring highly endangered vaquita porpoises into a captive breeding program, Sandra Dibble of the San Diego Union-Tribune and CBS News […]