News Archive - Page 141 of 145

Jo’s death

Jo’s death
22.04.2016
France
Jo’s death
Other campaign or multi-campaigns of One Voice

Abandoned in the pouring rain with a broken pelvis, without food or water, Jo spent the weekend in pain. Well he was going to die anyway wasn’t he? One Voice has filed a complaint.

The circumstances surrounding his death would probably have gone unnoticed if the Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) didn’t share a wall with the incriminated abattoir. Jo, as One Voice has named this calf, experienced a complete disregard for his suffering, with authorities only being alerted thanks to the vigilance of an SPA aid worker. But how many others in France undergo similar tragedies, or worse, because of a lack of witnesses?

Jo fell. He fractured his pelvis when getting out of the lorry that brought him to the abattoir. He hadn’t travelled far: local produce, organic, meat sold in blocks of kilos to individuals, far removed from the wholesale distribution networks. The illusion of a perfect life… But no one managed to get him on his feet again. In a case like this we end the suffering as quickly as possible don’t we? No, not on a weekend! He ended up waiting until Monday, nearly two days! Two days unprotected from the October rain, cold and incapable of moving on the rough ground, without bedding, water, food, or even a tarpaulin to provide him with some form of protection against the elements…

Despite requests from the SPA to the manager of the abattoir to allow the SPA vet to intervene, Jo suffered, with the manager eventually telling them to mind their own business. Why? To save vets fees? There must be a good reason to leave an animal in such a state, surely?

Jo is no longer in pain. He was anaesthetised on the Monday morning before being slaughtered. His meat will not be sold. The manager of the abattoir is being accused of maltreatment and One Voice has filed a complaint, hoping that Jo’s plight will be recognised and severely punished…

Following the recent scandals surrounding abattoirs, the minister for agriculture has announced that these mistreatments will no longer be considered as simple offences (that are punished with a fine), but as penal crimes (to be judged before a tribunal). For One Voice, this measure is completely inappropriate, the objective clearly being to reassure consumers, allowing them to continue eating meat without stress. But the fundamental reality is that abattoirs remain environments of unimaginable cruelty.

A study conducted by One Voice in twenty-five randomly chosen abattoirs has revealed the same barbaric practices. Can we really be humane, ethical and compassionate in an environment designed to kill? In our Western society we conceal and industrialise the slaughter of animals to the point where we ignore the reality. What generates this slaughter…? Consumption.

Global week of action for victims of animal experimentation

Global week of action for victims of animal experimentation
17.04.2016
Monde
Global week of action for victims of animal experimentation
Animal testing

In honor of this week dedicated to animals exploited in laboratories, Aroma-Zone has partnered with One Voice to offer our readership a unique, ethical, and organic recipe for a healthy glow!

Being healthy means taking care of yourself, maintaining your home, eating healthily etc.: but your daily routine should not necessitate animal sacrifice. When consumers actively choose to buy cruelty-free products, manufacturers listen because it is in their best interest to meet consumer desires. Just by living ethically we can actively participate in large-scale societal shifts.

Last week, One Voice president Muriel Arnal took part in the Coalition meeting on animal experimentation in Berlin. The consensus seemed to be that the future for laboratory animals is beginning to look up, so now is the time to act!

Aroma-Zone, a longtime One Voice partner, has been embracing the cruelty-free label for the last ten years. For this week’s occasion, they offered us a recipe for a skin serum for spring found at the bottom of the page.

All of One Voice’s initiatives are independently financed with your donations. So when you choose a One Voice certified product, transparency is always guaranteed. Since French corporations still do not comply with industry standards, it is crucial that the truth about how products are manufactured and regulated is made known.

During this special week, One Voice has been offering initiatives and petitions on its social networks. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! Let’s stop animal suffering in laboratories.

Do your part and write to brands you would like to see adopt cruelty-free labels.

Together we have the power to make significant changes!

Healthy glow serum for spring

Price: 4 euros for 30ml

Level of difficulty: beginner

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Bottling: 30 ml dropper bottle

Ingredients: 30ml

Macerated organic carrot oil: 1 10 ml dose
organic apricot oil: 1 10 ml dose
organic prune oil: 1 10 ml dose
organic grapefruit oil without furocoumarin: 10 drops

Instructions:

put the ingredients together in the dropper bottle
close the bottle and shake

Usage:
Apply 3 to 4 drops of the fruit serum in the morning before daily care routine for a healthy glow!

Conservation:
create and conserve in hygienic conditions, your product can be saved for at least 6 months

The State Council has just announced that it will once again permit dissections in middle and high school, although the Ministry of Education has the option of disputing the decision. Write to the
Ministry of Education requesting that dissections are prohibited for academic purposes, along with the use of organs and/or vertebrates and cephalopods. Children and young adults should not be subjected to participating in such cruel and inhumane practice.

When minks eat whales…

When minks eat whales…
12.04.2016
Norvège
When minks eat whales…
Fashion

As the populations of larger whales are being driven to extinction, whalers are turning to smaller species. Japan has been launching fleets to hunt minke whales, whose meat is coveted as a delicacy, while Norway sells their flesh to fur farms. One Voice calls on France to strongly condemn these barbaric acts.

Several weeks ago, Japanese ships returned from Antarctica with 333 minke whales, many of which were pregnant females. This past weekend, a Japanese whaling fleet made its way toward the North Pacific for an annual hunt aimed at capturing 51 minke whales. While these killings are conducted in the name of “science”, the agency that sets the quotas includes whale meat recipes on its website. Yet ironically, the meat is so toxic that Japan is barred from importing it to other countries.

On the otherside of the Eurasian landmass in Norway, whale meat is hardly eaten, so instead it is used to feed foxes and minks on fur farms.
Rogaland Pelsdyrfôrlaget, the largest fur industry food manufacturer in Norway, used over 113 tons of minke whale meat, approximately 75 individual whales, to feed its captive animals

Are these hunters even aware that they are killing conscious sentient beings? The minke whale is the smallest member of the rorqual whale family, just three times larger than a human. These animals move alone and in small groups, sometimes joining larger communities if krill is abundant in a certain area. They are very fast swimmers and curious creatures: they have been known to unabashedly approach ships or ports and jump acrobatically in the air like dolphins. While we know little about their dialects or social habits, their song is quite remarkable and unique.

These very same beings, who have been frequently known to socialize with human divers, are murdered to supply grocery stores and fur factories with tainted meat. There is something wildly disturbing about the concept of capturing this rare species from the wild and skinning them alive, only to feed them to animals living hellish existences of their own, in tiny cages on fur farms—they too will face the same destiny of being skinned for profit.

The French government must et an example by being more vigilant in condemning whaling, both domestically and abroad. Like Australia, our government must denounce Japan’s activities, along with those of Iceland and Norway. Given that these countries have violated the code of conduct delineated by the International Whaling Commission, Europe is obligated to respond with sanctions.

Rasputin’s walk

Rasputin’s walk
05.04.2016
Antibes
Rasputin’s walk
Wildlife

Rasputin paces along the fence. He always starts the same way, rolling his head around, then walking the path to the enclosure walls. Rolling his head again, he turns and goes in the other direction, again, and again, until he is exhausted.

This is stereotypical behaviour. This compulsive ritual, very common in zoos, is exhibited by an animal unable to satisfy its normal behavioural needs in an unnatural environment. With summer temperatures reaching 40°C, Antibes on the Côte d’Azur in South Eastern France is not the ideal place for homing Polar Bears.

Of course, Marineland has spent 3.5 million euros on the layout of their enclosure: sea and fresh water pools and prairie plants similar to those found in the Arctic plains, fountains, rockeries, shady shelters and to top it all off, two refrigerated caves with a bed of ice, wow!

But sadly, Rasputin doesn’t even see the prairie plants. He doesn’t want to lie down all day in a fridge or shimmy about in a poky pool, where humans push their faces up against the glass. What polar bears want more than anything, are the immense white ice plains, seals, and the ocean, where they can walk and swim far removed from that smell of fast food and the constant noise, far away from the metal walls and that stuffy enclosure. Their huge bodies with claws, fangs and paws to dig the snow were made to swim under the ice and roam the prairie.

Born in Moscow Zoo, Rasputin joined little Flocke in Nuremberg in 2008, then the pair were transferred to Antibes Marineland in April 2010.

Why did they bring them? Why invest so much money in this new attraction?

Because of Knut, without doubt, and “Knutmania”. When the little polar bear was born in Berlin Zoo in 2007, he attracted lots of attention. Knut was everywhere, on TV, in books, in blogs, in songs. They even made ‘Knut’ toys, ringtones and sweets! The zoo loved the hype: doubling the value of its share actions in one week.

The same year, Flocke (Flake in German) was born in Nuremberg zoo. Quickly removed from Vera, his mother, who threw him against the rocks, it was attempted to create a “Madame Knut”. His name became a registered trademark. His image was posted everywhere, but without success. An ecological association took the zoo to court claiming that this exploitation of Flocke interfered with her well-being. In any case, as the polar bears grow, the public lose interest. Flocke and Rasputin were sent to Antibes. Little Hope was born in 2011, but there wasn’t really any ‘Hopemania’ in France.

Marineland states that “the reproduction and preservation of polar bears is an essential issue for the park. They are ambassadors for a species greatly endangered by global warming and its impact on the ecosystem”. As it happens, of the 330 or so polar bears living in 120 zoos across the world, none of these will ever be released, nor will any of their children, so there will be no effect on the preservation of the species. The only solution to save polar bears is to stop hunting and to protect their territories, rather than looking for petrol. It is better to give up fossil fuels rather than building refrigerated caves which generate global warming gases. Whatever we do, polar bears will never be happy in a zoo. Their life is a metaphor of Rasputin’s walk: desperate and hopeless.

One Voice is currently lodging a complaint to local authorities to allow Rasputin to be urgently removed for his own well-being.

A good day for the animals, a wake-up call for the circuses!

A good day for the animals, a wake-up call for the circuses!
05.04.2016
A good day for the animals, a wake-up call for the circuses!
Exploitation for shows

We got there. No more waiting, no retraction possible. The 18th of March decree is finally in application. These regulations, now obligatory, may also help us give the animals their freedom!

One Voice has been impatiently waiting for this day. Circuses are now obliged to comply with the legislation covered by the 18^th of March 2011 decree. As well as being pushed out of a growing number of towns, circuses are finding it increasingly difficult to pursue the exploitation of animals. One Voice is continuing to offer assistance to circuses to help them to convert to non-animal status, as it has done for the last fifteen years. In parallel, One Voice investigators will work even harder to obtain evidence to assist in the numerous legal procedures which will follow!

Some of the following important points established by the decree:

A list of authorised species has been established (see the box at the bottom of this article). Other species can only be exhibited if a dispensation is obtained. Importantly, the decree specifies that only animals that currently participate in performances (out of all those in training) can be kept. One Voice investigations have frequently revealed animals confined to their cages, mostly due to their age… From now on circuses are legally obliged to provide them with a fixed home for their retirement…

In addition, the decree bans animals from participating in performances if:

they have a health impediment;

the nature of the performances represent a danger to their health (for example, elephants and other animals who are required to adopt unnatural positions for performances);

the security of the public and personnel cannot be guaranteed, due to animal comportment or inadequate handling of the animals (although reports conducted by our experts clearly indicate that public security cannot be guaranteed…)

Following on from this, animals in poor health must be excluded from any presentation to the public, even outside of performances. In other words, they mustn’t be visible in their pens if visiting is possible…

The following text is particularly important, stipulating that the
« animals must be kept and trained in conditions which endeavour to satisfy their biological and behavioural needs, in order to guarantee their security, their well-being and their good health […] The animals’ accommodation must meet the minimum requirements set for each particular species, in annexes I and III of the current decree. » Incidentally, animals must be allowed to go outside, out of their enclosures, except in cases of bad weather…

On all of these points, One Voice investigators are going to increase the number of related inspections, and will take legal action as often as necessary!

Get involved: let us know if any circuses may be violating the law, and share this information!

Together, we shall end animal slavery in circuses!

The following species are subject to regional authorisation:

– Mammals: Macaca spp. (macaque), Papio spp. (baboon), Puma concolor (cougar), Panthera leo (lion), Panthera pardus (panther, leopard), Panthera tigris (tiger), Otaria byronia (South American sea lion), Zalophus californianus (Californian sea lion), Arctocephalus pusillus (South African fur seal), female specimens of the species Elephas maximus (Asian elephant), female specimens of the species Loxodonta africana (African bush elephant), Equus burchellii (Grant’s zebra, Chapman’s zebra);

– Birds : Psittaciformes (parrots, parakeets), Accipiter spp (goshawks, sparrowhawks), Buteogallus (buzzard), Parabuteo spp. (buzzard), Buteo supp. (buzzard), Aquila spp. (eagle), Hieraaetus spp. (eagle), Spizaetus spp. (hawk eagle), Falco spp. (falcon), Bubo bubo (eagle owl), Struthio camelus (ostrich);

– Reptiles: Python regius (royal python), Python molurus bivittatus (Indian python), Python reticulatus (reticulated python), Boa constrictor (boa constrictor), Crocodilus niloticus (Nile crocodile), Alligator mississippiensis (Mississippi alligator);

Other species could be subject to exceptions.

A world without lions?

A world without lions ?
02.04.2016
A world without lions ?
Wildlife

50 years ago, there were still 450,000 lions around the world. In 2015 there were only some 20,000 lions left in Africa and 500 in India, in Gujarat. The last five lions in Iran –a female and her young– were killed in 1963 and their massacre celebrated by the national media. At this rate and if nothing is done, our children will grow up in a world without lions, apart from a few inbred and psychotic specimens exhibited in zoos.

These big cats are under threat from all sides: trophy hunting, canned hunts, poaching, poisoning, habitat loss, being caught for zoos, and the demand for lion bones for Chinese traditional medicine, are now pushing them to the very edge of extinction.

Several African countries allow trophy hunting, of which Cecil the lion was one of the most recent victims. The revenue from permits finances conservation programmes, but these are precisely the countries where the lion population is in steepest decline. This barbarous recreation, restricted to the well-off, kills far more than just the individual lion whose head is cut off to adorn the drawing room, for when a big male is killed, his entire pride is left unsettled and unprotected.

But hunting wild lions is expensive and there is the risk of returning empty-handed, so some choose an easier solution: canned hunting. In South Africa captive lions are raised by hand in fenced-in locations. Being tame, they are effortlessly killed by trophy hunters who are too lazy or too busy. Bones removed from the carcasses of these lions are sold in Asia for Chinese traditional medicine. They can be exported legally, since lions are not included in Appendix 1 of CITES. Between 2003 and 2012, some 6,782 trophies were exported from South Africa, as well as tonnes of bones and hides. It is feared that this legal trade provides cover for smuggling of bones from wild lions.

The expansion of agriculture in Africa leads to territory loss for wild animals and a shortage of prey. So they attack farm animals, leading to a vicious circle of farmers protecting their livestock by shooting or poisoning lions.

Finally, zoos and circuses regularly obtain wild lions and subject them to a life of boredom and confinement to entertain the public. The exact number of captive big cats in Europe is not known, a serious reporting omission for these populations. In the USA alone the numbers are estimated at close to 10,000 tigers, panthers, pumas and lions imprisoned.

A king that became a commodity

A king that became a commodity
01.04.2016
A king that became a commodity
Wildlife

Trapped, killed, poisoned, confined, contaminated, dispossessed of his territory on which he could survive, treated as merchandise, tamed and humiliated: an urgent mobilization on our part is necessary to save the one who was once recognized as the king of the animals!

Throughout human history, lions have struck our imagination. In France, 35,000 years ago, artists painted lions on the walls of the caves of Chauvet, in poses that denote a very fine observation of animal behaviour. These representations even describe behaviours observed in African lions today (1). Since then, the lion has become a symbol of nobility, bravery, power and strength, and more recently, the symbol of the Lannister’s house, with its motto “Hear Me Roar”. In this worldwide phenomenon that is known as the Game of Thrones, HBO. Throughout history and throughout the world, statues, images and stories of lions are everywhere; but for these animals the cost of this attention that man has given them is very high.

Endangered

A comparative mapping of human and leonine populations over the last fifty years shows that the number of wild lions in Africa has halved for every additional billion people in the world (2). In the 1940s, there were some 450,000 lions in Africa. In the eighties, there were less than 100,000 left. Today, it is estimated that between 23,000 and 39,000 lions, confined in only 20% of their original range and only seven African countries still harbouring populations of more than 1,000 wild lions Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. On the red list of threatened species the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has currently classified lions as “vulnerable”, with only lion populations in West and Central Africa ranked as “in danger”. In West Africa, only 400 to 500 specimens remain (3).

Dispossessed of his territory, shot and poisoned

The result from the development of agriculture and livestock in Africa is that lions are confined to ever smaller areas, where prey may not be large enough to support their livelihoods. Sometimes attacking cattle to survive. The result is a vicious circle because pastoralists and farmers in order to protect their livelihood, start killing lions they consider “pests” by shooting or poisoning them. Carbofuran, a pesticide used in agriculture, so toxic that it is banned in the United States and the European Union, is used to kill lions, particularly in East Africa. Just a quarter of a teaspoonful of this product will kill a lion in minutes. Farmers smear an animal carcass with Carbofuran, which may be enough to kill a whole pride of lions if they devour it. The animals that come to finish off the carcass, for example are hyenas, vultures, jackals and various insects, which also die.

Exposed to disease

Contact with humans and livestock exposes lions to diseases against which they are not immune and which pose a threat to their survival (4). These are mainly the distemper virus (CDV), feline immunodeficiency virus and bovine tuberculosis. Bovine tuberculosis was introduced, for example, into the buffalo of Kruger Park through domestic cattle, and buffaloes transmitted it to lions. As for the distemper, it now threatens lions in the Serengeti region of Tanzania. Kruger Park and Serengeti Park are home to some of the largest remaining lion populations, and the threat of these diseases is considerable (5).

Hunted for pleasure

Trophy hunting is allowed in several African countries who consider that it brings in funds for the conservation of their natural heritage. Yet these countries are precisely those in which lion populations are declining the fastest, and one study shows that trophy hunting does little to local economies (6). The lion is one of the five big animals that are popular with hunters.

Wild lion hunting can be very expensive and unsuccessful. This is why many trophy hunters are attracted to South Africa where they are guaranteed the ability to kill an animal. South African exports of lions that are kept in captivity included 6782 trophies, plus 734 skins and tons of lion bones. In South Africa, according to sources (7), there are up to 8000 lions in captivity compared to 2700 wild individuals. Lion farms have been the subject of a One Voice investigation. Cubs fetch a price, because people pay to see them and to pet them.

Teen lions are a good earner as well because people pay to walk around with them. Older lions fetch a good price because people pay to slaughter them and then carry off their stuffed head as a trophy, or use their skinned hides as carpets. Lion meat is profitable and so are the bones. The latter are in great demand in Asia for the manufacture of traditional Chinese medicines.

The suffering in the circuses

Only a few years ago One Voice organized the rescue of 3 lions, Shada, Djunka and Nalla, who had always lived in a circus in the Dordogne. They were kept in isolation in cages measuring only 1.83m x 1.83m and were used for breeding. Whenever Nalla and Shada gave birth, their cubs were taken away to sale. Thanks to One Voice and the Born Free Foundation in France and the United Kingdom, these three lions were welcomed by a trusted sanctuary in South Africa. In circuses, wild animals are deprived of everything that makes life worth living.

The suffering in Zoos

Lions have been popular with animal collectors since the middle ages and even long before in some parts of the world. There are currently between 7000 and 10 000 captive animal collections in the world, known as zoos or sanctuaries, which are open to the public (8), and not counting the unknown number of private collections. It would be difficult to determine how many lions are languishing in them, and it would be even harder to say how many of them have a life worth living. According to a survey of zoos in France in 2011, out of 726 randomly selected pens in 25 zoos, 1 out of 4 did not have an appropriate environment. The survey (9) concluded that “there is an apparent lack of consideration for the specific needs of each wild animal species concerned and that of the necessary care required in captivity.” For example, “some species were enclosed in small, absolutely incompatible enclosures in terms of their needs concerning space.”

It’s time to act

Due to human activities, the king of animals is on the verge of extinction. Since the dawn of time, lions have been captured and imprisoned to entertain and amuse the public. As a first step toward to restoring balance, One Voice calls for the status of lions to be include in Appendix I of CITES, to stop any trade in lions or parts of lions. One Voice also calls on the international community to support programs to protect wild lions that still exist around the world and to put an end to the deprivation of captive lions.

Discover our campaign to restore the sovereignty of lions!

Notes:

Craig Packer et Jean Clottes, « When Lions Ruled France », Natural History, 11/00 pp. 52-57.
Secrétariat de la Convention sur la diversité biologique (2010) ) Global Biodiversity Outlook 3. Montréal, 94 pages, http://www.cbd.int/doc/publications/gbo/gbo3-final…
Henschel et al, « The Lion in West Africa Is Critically Endangered », PLOS ONE, 11 janvier 2014, volume 9, 1reéd. http://www.panthera.org/sites/default/files/The%20…
Roelke et al., Pathological manifestations of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection in wild African lions. Virology, 390(1), 2009; Cleaveland et al., The conservation relevance of epidemiological research into carnivore viral diseases in the Serengeti. Conservation Biology, 21(3), 612-622
http://www.lionaid.org/news/2015/02/lion-stronghol…
http://www.ecolarge.com/work/the-200-million-quest…
http://www.lionaid.org/news/2014/08/south-africa-d…
Walker S. et al (2004): “The ‘other’ zoo world. Unaffiliated zoos and their impact on global zoo image and on conservation. What is to be done?” In WAZA conferences: proceedings of the 58th annual meeting, hosted by AMACZOOA, San José, Costa Rica, 16–20 November 2003. Cooperation between zoos in in situ and ex situ conservation programmes: 178–181. Dollinger, P. (Ed.). Bern: World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
http://www.bornfree.org.uk/zooreports/Francefr

Three years ago, I killed a calf

Three years ago, I killed a calf
01.04.2016
France
Three years ago, I killed a calf
Other campaign or multi-campaigns of One Voice

A beautifully moving testimony translated by One Voice: so that one day no more babies will be sacrificed.

Right after his birth, I dragged him away from his crying mother and locked him in a wooden box. He was afraid … he was lost … he was shaking. But I put him this box to make sure he would not drink his mother’s milk … The milk I need for MY cheese, MY yogurt, MY ice cream.

I left him in this box for eight weeks, feeding it with a cheap replacement formula. He lived in his own filth and cried after his mother day and night. So, I took it out of the box and carried it into a room. Although I dragged him unceremoniously into this sordid place, he tried to suck my fingers. He reached out to me in a kind of surge of love, doing everything in his power to fill the void created by his mother’s absence. It was pitiful. When we arrived in the room in question, I hung him up by his hind legs and put an end to his misery. He kicked for a minute or two while he was bleeding. A few hours later, he was cut up into pieces and packaged into small, clean packages and shipped. The veal. Mmmmm. Tender calf.

Three years ago, I saw the video showing me that calf that I had killed. The fact that it was not me who dragged him to the ground or who
the knife does not matter. I am the one who demanded cheese, yoghurt and ice cream. And as luck would have it, there was someone
out there who was more than happy to provide it to me. Three years ago, I fell on my knees, I cursed the sky and the whole of
humanity, and I screamed like I had never done before. I shouted for this calf. I screamed for forgiveness, but no one answered me.

All my life I had thought I loved animals, and I had spent the last twenty years refraining from eating their flesh because of that belief. But until three years ago, I did not know that I was still hurting so many animals. I was not doing them harm: I tortured them, I mutilated them, I deprived them of the mother that EVERY baby on this planet needs. I deprived them of any semblance of comfort or joy. I could not have been crueller.

Three years ago, when my screams stopped, when the sudden overwhelming hatred I felt towards humanity began to subside, I swore to every calf, every chicken, every pig, each turkey, each fish, each shrimp, and all the other animals I had eaten in my life, that this time I
done. I had finished. The truth had been hidden for so long. But now, I knew. Good God how I now knew.

Three years ago, from vegetarian I then became a vegan. I cannot change the past. But I can learn from it. I can learn how and why this horrible truth has been withheld for so long. I can make these liars pay for forcing me to be so cruel for so long. I can make them pay by telling
others the truth … Others I know, and I know they care about animals as much as me … Others I know, and I know that they do not
want to kill that calf. I am vegan, now and forever. For the rest of my life, I will speak on behalf of this calf. I will spend my life absolving my faults towards him, to make his life meaningful. I never wanted to hurt you. I will never be able to harm you again.

Article by Jeff Rosenberg

One Voice Translation

Shared on Let the Animals Live, Israel

Website: http://www.letlive.org.il/eng/

Lolita, the Orca who kept hoping

Lolita, the Orca who kept hoping
01.04.2016
Miami
Lolita, the Orca who kept hoping
Exploitation for shows

At Miami Seaquarium, Lolita turns in circles. She doesn’t know, but we are working to save her. For her perhaps: freedom. Soon.

The prison

Today,
Lolita swims in a circular aquarium of 24 by 11 metres, and with a depth of 3 to 6 metres, surrounded by spectator benches under the Florida sun. When she turns upwards, her tail fin touches the ground, because her body is 6m long. Completely alone for 36 years now, she shares her tiny prison with a few Pacific white-sided dolphins.

The only Orca companion that she ever had was Hugo, caught two years earlier from the same L pod clan. Most likely a brother or a cousin. The couple never had children, even though the two captives were extremely affectionate with each other, sometimes publicly. Lolita and Hugo lived together for ten years in the « whale jar ». Unable to cope with captivity, Hugo died from a brain haemorrhage by hitting his head repeatedly against the walls of the tank in the Spring of 1980. Lolita plunged into despair and there were concerns for her life. But the little orca kept going and today she is surviving the intolerable. Does she doubt what is planned for her? Is it hope that has kept her going far longer than a human would in her circumstances?

Freedom

On the outside, everything has been prepared for her. A reliable rehabilitation plan has been established for Lolita by her longstanding friend, Howard Garrett, (founder of the
Orca network), and a team of scientists. We just need a gesture from the company Aspro Ocio, who own her as well as the Antibes orcas, to open her prison doors to allow for an amazing occurrence in the close future. Imagine….

Hope

Lolita is in a bay close to the San Juan Islands, in the ocean off Washington State, having been transported by plane there. It has been a few weeks now since she rediscovered what she had never really forgotten: to catch her own fish, to dive, to voyage in the ocean. Her human friends take care of her but are becoming more and more discrete. One beautiful morning, we can hear a sequence of whistles coming from the ocean. The Southern Resident Orca Community is returning!

It’s the L Pod, her natal clan. The wild orcas swim carefully along the net cutting the creek, trying first of all to understand. Who is this stranger? They interrogate her, she clumsily responds in their dialect. It has been such a long time since she has spoken to someone!

Suddenly, in the crowd of gathered orcas, a matriarch detaches herself and comes closer. She addresses the stranger, whistling her name, questioningly. Lolita starts and replies. They know each other! « Mother?… » Yes, it’s Ocean Sun, her 80 year old mother who is looking straight at her. The net gently falls to the ground, whilst the two orcas lean on each other for the first time in 46 years! We don’t know how orcas cry, but these two are surely crying in happiness. Now, all of the tribe wriggle, dive, hit the waves and welcome the unimaginable escapee from hell. Soon, their large fins will line up together, taking Lolita to the dark waters of Puget Sound. She was right to keep hoping…

But all of this is still a dream. Help us make it real.

Lolita, the lonely orca, must go home

Lolita, the lonely orca, must go home
31.03.2016
Miami
Lolita, the lonely orca, must go home

Kidnapped as a child and sentenced to slavery, she was locked up in a goldfish bowl and used as a showpiece for 46 years. They named her Lolita and she survives at Miami Seaquarium with an incredible rage, that only hope can explain.

Lolita’s life could have been very different.

When she was born around 1966 into the L pod of the Southern Resident Orca Community, her mother, Ocean Sun (L25) and all of her family surrounded her in love and fiercely protected her. There were many orcas in British Columbia. Other than the occasional hunter who aimed at them from his boat, they led a peaceful life, forgotten by man, in the dark Pacific waters. At the age of one, Lolita had already learnt to hunt chinook salmon whilst continuing to suckle her mother. She had started to explore her environment, to go off and play with other children and learn the tribe’s dialect.

The little orca grew very quickly. At the age of three, she was joining in in group hunts, batting the fish towards her companions and discovering little by little how to find the best prey depending on the wind and the tides. Lolita was still very young, but she was already a proper member of her community. Her brain, weighing five kilos, took in all of the rules for survival in her powerful memory. One day, she would also become a respected matriarch followed by her adult sons and daughters and a whole band of grandchildren, free and happy in her world. But this wasn’t taking into account a new industry, that of captivity…

Horror at Pen Cove.

On the 8^th August 1970, Lolita-Tokitae, at the age of four, swam alongside her family in Admiralty Bay towards Puget Sound in Washington State. Suddenly, the entire community of 85 orcas were violently forced into Penn Cove creek, in the sea off Whidbey Island. The operation ‘Namu Inc‘ was launched! Two dolphin traffickers, Ted Griffin and Don Goldsberry, had put all the necessary means in place to capture their golden egg laying chickens: reconnaissance planes, speedboats, M-80 explosives thrown in handfuls into the water… Total chaos. The children were separated from their mothers by a line. Five orcas, of which four were children, drowned during the capture. To conceal the crime, the kidnappers opened their stomachs and stuffed them with chains and stones before sinking the bodies.

Lolita was hauled into a hammock whilst the adult orcas cried in distress. The youngsters called for their mothers with long heart wrenching calls. One of the pleading parents was the heart broken Ocean Sun, who watched her daughter be loaded onto a boat to never be seen again.

Lolita-Tokitae.

On arrival at Miami Seaquarium on the 24
^th of September 1970, the little Tokitae was renamed Lolita. The six other L Pod children captured with her were distributed between Japan, Texas, the United Kingdom, France (Calypso) and Australia. They were all extremely young and they would all die less than five years later. Lolita is therefore today the only survivor of the 45 members of the Southern Resident Orca Community captured and sold between 1965 and 1973.

We know that this community is today struggling to recover from these captures, which were eventually banned, which meant that the capture of Orcas moved further North, to Iceland. Its population is now under threat and benefits from special protection under the
Endangered Species Act. This law also applies to the Orca Lolita, and should be worth her freedom. But the industry resistance is strong and Lolita remains a prisoner.