PETA Statement on the Miami Seaquarium’s Relocation of Li’i

For Immediate Release:
September 25, 2023

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in response to reports that the Miami Seaquarium has relocated the dolphin Li’i—the former tankmate of the late orca Lolita—to SeaWorld San Antonio:

By violating its promise to send Li’i to a seaside sanctuary and condemning him to spend the rest of his life in yet another concrete cell, the Miami Seaquarium has failed this long-suffering dolphin, just as it failed Lolita. Li’i deserves the chance to return to his ocean home, to explore, dive, and finally feel some sense of freedom after nearly 35 years spent in a chlorinated concrete tank. PETA urges the Seaquarium to give him the peaceful oceanic retirement he is owed and send him to a seaside sanctuary.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.