Miami Seaquarium, the former home of the orca known as Lolita, who tragically died in 2023, has launched legal action against the former marine animal trainer who exposed the appalling conditions in which she was kept.
The lawsuit alleges that animal rights activist Phil Demers unlawfully published drone footage on social media showing the captivity and conditions of animals at Seaquarium.
Attorneys for Mr Demers say that his alleged conduct is protected by the First Amendment and that the case is a ‘Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation’, or SLAPP suit – a type of legal action intended to silence critics of an organisation by burdening them with legal costs until they abandon their campaign.
‘This lawsuit stems from Mr Demers having shared a third party’s photographs and videos documenting Lolita’s dire living conditions, and exercising his right to speak on a matter of public concern,’ said Chris Carraway, staff attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project (AALDP).
‘Constitutional protections for free speech do not allow Miami Seaquarium to sue Mr Demers for his criticism of its animal welfare practices, and these claims must be dismissed.’
According to a statement made by the AALDP, attorneys acting on behalf of Mr Demers have filed a motion seeking summary judgment of the claim made by Miami Seaquarium.
A summary judgment is a court order that brings a legal case to a quick close should a judge determine that there is no substantial reason for the case to be tried, or that it has little chance of success.
In filing their motion, Mr Demers’ legal team has argued that he had never illegally flown a drone over Miami Seaquarium, and that claims that he had done so should be dismissed.
The lawyers also note that in its lawsuit, Miami Seaquarium argues that drone flights such as the one exposing Lolita’s appalling conditions could disturb or harm the animals kept there, or injure a member of the public.
However, it was subsequently revealed that the Seaquarium itself regularly flies drones over its own facility, some of which come within 3m (10ft) of the ground and some of which involve performances with more than 100 drones.
The lawyers argue that no animal has been hurt and no members of the public have been injured or complained as a result, therefore rendering Miami Seaquarium’s claim invalid.
The footage Mr Demers originally shared on social media in 2023 – which has prompted the lawsuit against him – showed a tank housing the orca known as Lolita, also called Tokitae, and Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut by the native Lummi people who considered her as family.
Lolita was captured in Puget Sound as an infant and had been in captivity for nearly 53 years, 43 of which were spent in solitude in a tank measuring just 80 x 35 feet (24.5 x 10.7m).
Public outrage over Mr Demers’ social media posts resulted in a concerted campaign to have Lolita re-homed in a coastal sanctuary close to her family, the L-pod group of Southern Resident Orcas in the Pacific Northwest.
Decades in captivity had taken a dire toll on her health, however, and after suffering for years with chronic infection, a lesion on her lungs and a ‘near-fatal’ bout of pneumonia in 2022, Lolita died on 18 August 2023, at the age of 57 years old. At the time of her death, she was the second-oldest orca in captivity.
