FREE THE ORCAS FROM LORO PARQUE NOW!

Please sign my petition about this awful cause! I'm a 13 year old girl who recently went on holiday to the beautiful Canary Islands and happened to stumble across a place called "Loro Parque". Loro Parque is a place in Tenerife, Spain that holds several creatures such as Orcas, Sea lions, Penguins, Gorillas, Parrots and loads more animals for the sake of tourism. It is a huge attraction park on the sunny island of Tenerife which happens to attract many Brits. 

On my recent trip to Tenerife I was appalled to hear about this place and even more shocked to hear what animals they hold.

Orcas have the ability to dive up to 328 feet, however the pools at Logo Parque are merely an eighth of that. 

Loro Parque displays captive birds, dolphins and sea lions, along with six orcas – held captive on indefinite loan from the popular attraction in the US, SeaWorld.

Orca calves Kohana and Skyla – who were torn away from their mothers at the ages of 3 and 2, respectively, at SeaWorld Orlando in Florida – and Keto and Tekoa were flown thousands of miles to the Canary Islands, where Logo Parque is located.

Morgan, a young female orca who was taken from her ocean home with the promise that she would never be publicly displayed and would be released back into the ocean as soon as she had been rehabilitated, is another of the animals held captive at Loro Parque.

Two calves, both inbred, have been born at the marine park: Vicky, who died when she was only 10 months old, and Adán, who has survived for four years in a concrete tank.

Many of the Orcas have "rake marks". Rake marks are caused when dominant animals scrape their teeth against the skin of less aggressive animals. In the wild, lower-ranking orcas could swim away to safety, but in Loro Parque’s cramped tanks, there’s nowhere for them to go.

These attacks can result in painful and serious injuries, and they’ve been reported as being so severe that blood seeped from an orca’s wounds.

Also, many frustrated orcas have been known to bite the side of their tanks. Orcas are intelligent animals who work cooperatively, have sophisticated social structures, communicate using distinct dialects and swim up to 100 miles every day. Being denied the opportunity to engage in such natural behaviour leaves them frustrated, bored and angry. With little else to do, they neurotically mouth and bite the sides of the tanks.

An orca was confined to one of the small back tanks, floated on the surface and was seen rubbing his or her head against the concrete.

Many orcas have missing or broken teeth. The orcas’ worn and damaged teeth were visible when they opened their mouths to accept food. Some orcas’ teeth were completely missing or ground down to the gum line. Many orcas at Loro Parque had exposed pulp cavities. These cavities are the result of a painful drilling procedure performed on teeth that have been fractured or otherwise traumatised as a result of life in captivity. Orcas don’t lose their teeth naturally.

Many orcas have been known to float listlessly and exhibit unusual behaviour. Wild orcas are inquisitive, energetic and almost always on the move. Orcas at Loro Parque often float motionless at the surface of the water or bob listlessly and one of the orcas was observed begging for food from nearby trainers. This is awful and I'm shocked that nobody does anything about it.

Often trainers lock orcas in smaller tanks and ignore them. Orcas are sometimes kept isolated in holding tanks, and trainers pay little attention to them. One orca was even observed in the back tank splashing and trying to get the attention of a nearby trainer.

These are only a fraction of what captivity does to animals. Yeah, I may only be 13 and not have much power but with your help we will be able to close down this horrible place for good! Orcas belong in the ocean. They will never thrive in captivity, and keeping them locked in concrete tanks is wrong. By ignoring these orcas’ ongoing health problems – which have been documented time and again over the past four years – SeaWorld and Loro Parque are showing just how little they care about the welfare of the animals they imprison.

Thank you for reading this. Special thank you to PETA uk for supplying some information whilst I was doing research.

UPDATE: Thank you all so much for signing this petition! I will soon print off the signatures and send a letter to the Tenerife government! In the meantime please do continue to tell your friends and family! I have created an Instagram account for this too, so to stay updated with everything regarding Loro Parque, give me a follow: @closedownloroparque

Thank you all again! :)