Heartbreaking video shows ‘world’s loneliest orca’ Lolita swimming in same depressing pattern all day long in tiny tank
A SAD orca and a dolphin were spotted repeating the same depressing movements all day in a tiny tank.
The two animals have lived in the Miami Seaquarium since they were captured decades ago.
Sped-up footage shows Lolita, captured in 1970, lightly wiggling her body in a corner of the concrete tank.
On the other side, Li’i, the pacific white-sided dolphin captured in 1988, is seen swimming laps endlessly.
The video, posted by @dannybluey on Reddit, left people fuming after seeing the animals’ lonely lives in the empty exhibit grounds.
“That’s not interesting that’s just animal cruelty,” one wrote.
Another commented: “Hell on earth for them. Hopefully some process of nature has numbed their minds until they are finally able to die.
“Stop giving these people your money.”
“When a human is held in solitary confinement for months people call it horrific and inhumane.
“When it happens to an animal people pay money to see it,” a third replied.
The footage was shot on May 26, just a couple of months after Seaquarium announced plans are in place to set Lolita free after 53 years in captivity.
The depressed killer whale, known as “the world’s loneliest orca”, is set to return to the Pacific Ocean.
Lolita, whose real name is Tokitae, was taken from her mother aged four.
She was used as Seaquarium’s star attraction for more than five decades before falling ill.
Activists have long been campaigning for her release from the Florida aquarium, which has been referred to as an “abusement park”.
Now, both her captors and campaigners have formed an unlikely alliance to reunite the lonely orca with the waters of the Pacific Northwest, where her mother is believed to still roam.
The aquarium agreed to no longer include her in shows last year due to an agreement with the US government.
It followed a damning federal report in 2021 that accused the park of serious marine mammal violations and resulted into new ownership.
Campaigners have claimed for decades that she is far too big for the miniature tank that she lives in – which is only 20ft deep and just 35ft wide.
Animal rights group PETA has said that Lolita’s life there has been “a living nightmare” and have begged for her not to suffer the fate of her partner, Hugo, who died from hitting his head repeatedly against the tank walls.
Officials claim that the plan is already in motion to begin her release operation and Seaquarium are preparing for her journey.