People Around the World Send ‘Love Letters’ to Lonely Orca

For Immediate Release:
February 11, 2015

Contact:
Katie Arth 202-483-7382

PETA is asking people to make Lolita—the lone orca at Miami Seaquarium—their valentine this year by creating a love letter for her (that is, as text, as an image of a handwritten letter, as a photo of themselves with a sign, as a video, or in any other creative way to express support of Lolita’s freedom) and posting it to the campaign’s Facebook page, Love Letters for Lolita.

As noted on the Facebook event, Lolita has spent almost 45 years in the smallest orca tank in North America, without a companion of her own species for the past 35 years and without shelter from the blazing sun. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—is pushing for Lolita to be retired to a seaside sanctuary that’s waiting for her in her home waters off Washington’s San Juan Islands and, if possible, be released back into her family pod. Now that Lolita has finally been granted the same protection under the Endangered Species Act as her family in the wild, we’re one step closer to our goal! We think people will be concerned about the issue and may want to spread the message about Lolita’s plight this Valentine’s Day by participating in PETA’s Facebook campaign.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.