Need a little bit of crowd support to convince Elon to buy Tokitae "Lolita"

Ok, first of all, you REALLY need to calm down, little girly, because if you stop looking to pick a childish fight, you’d realize that you and I agree on a lot more than we disagree on and you wouldn’t have to keep yelling and calling me a “shill for the industry”. Seriously, stop being childish and learn how to have a conversation like an adult and people will take your cause more seriously. You are more than welcome to look at my post history to see what I do for a living, I’m very open with it – I run wildlife sanctuaries in about 25 countries all over the world. I develop wildlife habitats, including the rescue and release of marine mammals.

To go point by point: Here is the genetic testing. It is a scientific, peer-reviewed study of the three pods (one resident and two transient) local to the Pacific Northwest Region. Genetic samples were taken from 59 animals, including the two that are still alive from the time she was taken, which also happen to be the two that are the supposed mothers of her. She has no familial relation to any single member of this pod at all, including the two that were alive (which she had never once been pictured with) and which were debated to be her mother. Of any of them, she should at minimum have a genetic relation to her mother.

Your retelling of Keiko’s release sounds like you have only ever read summaries from blogs that want to tell the “happy side” of the story and that you have never looked into the first-hand accounts or any of the scientific papers that have come out of it. Have you looked into any of the actual procedures that were needed for his release? His release was by all accounts “Release At All Costs” due to public and media pressure and was not done scientifically.

Keiko absolutely did not swim in the open sea for years. You are correct that he was gradually reintroduced. He swam in a sea pen to get reintroduced to the environment, and he was gradually desensitized to human interaction. Unfortunately, he constantly sought out interaction, and the financiers of the operation constantly brought visitors to the sea pen, including children, and Keiko would seek out their attention – despite objections from the scientists and behaviorists.

While on their “walks” in the open ocean (which sometimes lasted two to three days before returning to the sea pen on his own), they would consistently encourage Keiko to hunt on his own in various ways, feeding him live fish, using a “fish catapult” to throw fish a football field’s distance away to have him separate the idea of fish coming from humans. Unfortunately, he absolutely never once hunted on his own. During his walks, he was also encouraged to interact with orcas but these were never friendly encounters and sometimes aggressive.

After years in the sea pen and multiple attempts at release (Keiko kept coming back), and millions and millions spent on the project, the financiers were growing frustrated and were facing more and more pressure from the public for release. The scientists and behaviorists were telling them that he wasn’t ready for release (he kept coming back, he wasn’t eating, and he wasn’t being accepted into a pod – and they kept bring visitors to interact with him – there’s literally pictures of children sitting on his back the day before his release date), so they literally threw the scientists and behaviorists out of the project and released him themselves.

His official release date was July 15, 2002. All photos of him show him constantly losing weight until his death (December 12, 2003), meaning he likely was not hunting on his own. He was never taken into a pod. He constantly showed up to docks soliciting attention, and people would rub him and feed him – ensuring that he would never have incentive to be wild. Pneumonia is likely caused by the proximity to boats and docks and population that polluted his lungs. When he did finally beach himself, he was so malnourished that the residents of the area brought a whole bunch of fish to the beach and essentially force fed him, so when rescuers showed up they were not able to get an accurate stomach sample to see if he had in fact had anything in his stomach to show he had hunted on his own. Necropsy results showed that the only things in his stomach were undigested fish and absolutely nothing in his intestines – leading to the idea that he had not eaten in quite a few days at minimum.

Yes, it was wrong to capture him in the first place – but after all was said and done, it was the wrong thing to release him. We have learned, and this is what I mean by making the future better. We have not captured wild animals since 1979, and what we can do is make the lives of those that are in that situation the best possible.

There are multiple other case studies that need to be looked into in order to consider the case for Lolita’s release as well. Take a look at Springer, the rescued juvenile orca from the L-25 pod (the supposed pod of Lolita). He was only in rehab for a month, and when he returned he was met with an incredible amount of aggression from everyone in his family for a very long time until eventually his aunt (not his mother) stepped in to raise him away from the rest of his pod. How do you think this pod would treat one that has been away for half a century that none of them have even met because they weren’t alive at the time she was taken?

Also take a look at Luna, from the same pod. She became incredibly used to people and solicited attention from people near boats. She loved the sound of running boats and would imitate the sound of the boats. She was eventually killed accidentally by running propellers. Consider this when thinking of Lolita and the fact that she would probably solicit attention from people in boats or docks.

As for the immunity issues I mentioned about Lolita – yes – we do have studies on that – scientific peer-reviewed studies of both Lolita’s immune system and of Puget Sound. The Pacific Northwest is one of the most toxic, polluted orca habitats in the world and is one of the reasons this pod is an endangered species! This area is rife with habitat destruction, agricultural development that is causing pollution, and an unbelievable amount of boating from commercial shipping and tourism that lead to both noise and toxic pollutants. This is highly studied.

And yes – I agree with you, being in a sterile environment is what keeps the immunity from protecting against this. This is why I mentioned it. Stop yelling. Again, if you would just read you would realize it instead of thinking I disagree with you. This is also why I brought up the open water facilities – this helps to keep the immune system up.

And again – I do this for a living. The cost would absolutely be billions – for one animal. To think otherwise is laughable and naïve. It’s just not viable. The world is not filled with people that are willing to donate hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of time and equipment and years of their lives. It is beautiful to think so, but again, believe me – I do this for a living, there’s a real world to this.

As I said before – we know that what happened in the past was wrong, everyone knows it. Let’s stop trying to prove what happened in the past was wrong because we already know it and aren’t doing it anymore, and haven’t done since 1979. But we have to think about what is best for the future. Let’s not put her into a toxic, polluted environment that she will be frustrated because we are going to have to gradually decrease any and all human interaction – which she enjoys, so that she can be released into an area that she will be treated aggressively by a pod that is not her’s (as proven by genetic testing), and then to die slowly from malnutrition and pneumonia caused by pollution from boats and proximity to docks.

Let’s do better for her.

Well, thats all the more reason why every passing day makes it worse.

If we are ever to redeem ourselves for things weve done to Orcas... this would count. It would be an extremely honorable and just thing to do.

So, add your tweet or a message, there is a highly improbable chance it may work.