Giant 3-D ‘Orca’ to ‘Swim in Circles’ Near Miami Seaquarium

PETA’s Mobile Billboard Will Urge People to Steer Clear of Animal Prison That Confines Lolita Alone to World’s Smallest Orca Tank

For Immediate Release:
November 2, 2018

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

People in Miami tomorrow are in for an eyeful, as a truck giving the illusion that it’s transporting a listless orca in a tiny tank will circle downtown Miami and the Miami Seaquarium, which is notorious for keeping a lone orca named Lolita in the tiniest orca tank in the world. The billboard will proclaim, “Abducted From the Wild. Hasn’t Seen Another Orca Since 1980. Free Lolita! Boycott Miami Seaquarium!”

The billboard with an LED display will circle around in front of the Miami Seaquarium on Saturday, November 3, from 2 to 6 p.m. and around downtown Miami from 6 to 9 p.m.

“For decades, Lolita has been denied everything that’s natural and important to her, pumped with drugs, and forced to perform tricks in chemically treated water for rowdy crowds,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s lifelike ‘orca’ will draw attention to her profound suffering and inspire kind people to avoid the Miami Seaquarium like the plague.”

In the wild, orcas may travel as far as 140 miles in a day with their family pods, but at the Miami Seaquarium, Lolita is held without anyone of her kind in a tiny tank that measures just 20 feet deep at its deepest point and 12 feet at its shallowest. She was taken from the wild over 48 years ago and has been without another orca companion since 1980, when her tankmate died after ramming his head into the side of their tank in what some believe was frustration or suicide.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—has long called on the Miami Seaquarium to retire Lolita to a seaside sanctuary, where she could dive deep, swim in her native waters, and maybe even see her mother again.

A second PETA truck with the message, “Collapsed Fins! Broken Teeth! Tiny Cell! Prisoner of SeaWorld! Don’t Go!” will be driven around downtown Orlando, Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld Orlando tomorrow.

For more information, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com.