Tragic revelations about Ula, Morgan's daughter
As soon as she was born, Ula, the little orca, Morgan's daughter, is now between life and death. One more tragedy at the Loro Park dolphinarium.
Ula, whose birth was celebrated with fanfare by the Loro Park dolphinarium, is now probably between life and death. The small orca seems to be beset by infections of all kinds. One more tragedy unfolds before the public eye, lulled by the lies from the managment of the Spanish dolphinarium.
Morgan was rescued in 2010 on a beach in the Netherlands, treated, but never released. A capture announced… Contrary to the current law on free-born orcas, Loro Park allowed Morgan, barely pubescent, to become pregnant, giving birth to Ula. In nature, she could have counted on the help of her aunts, sisters and mother. The baby would have been surrounded by the affection from her siblings in their pod, a family group guided by the matriarch. There, locked in a pool, there is nothing that allows for a maternal attachment, northe least of support for a young mother from her family in these important moments.
According to Loro Park, mother and daughter were very close in the first consecutive days at birth, and Morgan reported exemplary maternal instincts, not leaving her little one, Ula swimming at her side. Shortly after, however, the park separated the mother from her daughter, first of all on the pretext that she had too little milk, then it was for safety reasons… After only three days! Ula is isolated from her mother, bottle-fed by a human in a position that is unnatural…
Ula was photographed by a whistle-blower from the public stands. The images, which we also received, were analysed at the request of One Voice’s partner Voice of The Orcas by specialists, including Ingrid Visser, who has been working with us for many years. Not surprisingly, they all confirm what we were dreading.
Currently, Ula is kept in a separate pool, under a tent that protects her from the sun. She has photo-toxic lesions on the skin, a malformation of the head, and a sick left pectoral fin. On her tail, we can distinguish injection marks, probably antibiotics.
«I have never seen anything like it in nature, such as the deformation of the skull and the pathologies along the body are what we can see on this poor baby. I’m really sad for her and her mother, Morgan. This underlines how much the detention of these animals in places like Loro Park are a mistake.»Ingrid Visser, marine biologist at the Orca Research Trust
One Voice is a long-time partner of the Free Morgan Foundation, and a member of Dolphinaria-Free Europe, a European coalition that fights for dolphins and orcas held by dolphinariums. In France, we continue our fight against these water parks and to attack the state for failing to publish a new order prohibiting captive breeding and cetacean exchange between dolphinariums.
Please sign our petition to close the dolphinariums and allow the transfer of these captive animals to marine sanctuaries.