Lolita Update #9
May 3, 1999

Dear Friends of Lolita~

MOTHER'S DAY DEMO COMING UP SUNDAY, MAY 9TH AT THE MIAMI SEAQUARIUM!
The press release below was sent on Thursday, April 29. Since then additional news has occurred, calling for another round of releases.

• Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro will join his wife and son on Mother's Day, May 9th at Noon at the Seaquarium, to express their wish that Lolita be returned to her home waters.

• Singer/songwriter Elton John has announced that he "is most concerned with Lolita's situation" and is "willing to be of assistance."

• A full-page ad for the Mother's Day demonstration appears in the May issue of Ocean Drive Magazine.

• The Seaquarium has abandoned its attempt to gain a legislative exemption from zoning laws to allow its planned $70 million expansion.

The Mother's Day demonstration is sponsored by Mango's Tropical Cafe in South Beach, Breen Catering of Fort Lauderdale, Ocean Drive Magazine, David Rubinstein and Video Imagineering, Universal Cetacean Institute and Cetacean Society International.

MOTHER'S DAY PROTEST AT SEAQUARIUM SEEKS TO REUNITE LOLITA WITH HER MOTHER

Mother's Day, Sunday May 9th, will be a just another day for Lolita, the orca whale who has spent the last 28 years of her life in a display tank at the Miami Seaquarium on Key Biscayne. Despite the long separation, recent scientific evidence shows that Lolita is very capable of reuniting with her family still living in Puget Sound, but there is a great potential for harm by continuing to keep her captive in the smallest orca tank in the country.

Friends of Lolita are asking the Seaquarium to allow Lolita to return to her native habitat and live out the remainder of her life as it should be; not as a performer living in a tank. Backers of the proposal to transport Lolita back to her home waters are coming from throughout the country, including Karen Munro, wife of Ralph Munro, Washington Secretary of State. The political, economic and social conditions that have kept Lolita in a display tank in Miami for 28 years are now changing in a direction that is favorable to her chances to go home.

The public is invited to join the peaceful demonstration from noon to 1 PM on Mother's Day in front of the Seaquarium. Following the demonstration there will be a picnic lunch at Jimbo's Village on Virginia Key, where David Wallack will perform his original song, Endangered Species, and Papaloko and Loray Mystic will provide lively Caribbean music.

Much is going on to help bring Lolita home and to inform and advocate for her and her family Please consider a tax-deductible contribution to help Orca Network continue this work. Thank you!