Labour Tom: Suspend the ‘bully’ party
Plight of orca calf Ula in Spanish zoo
STAND MP Luciana Berger LABOUR Deputy Leader Tom Watson called for an entire constituency party to be suspended over the “bullying” of its Jewish MP.
Mr Watson urged the general secretary to censure Liverpool Wavertree CLP over its treatment of Luciana Berger.
“It is clear to me Luciana Berger is being bullied,” he wrote to Jennie Formby.
“This behaviour by her local party is intolerable.”
Local members had tried to bring a “no-confidence” motion next week but it was pulled last night.
Ms Berger has had death threats and online abuse since criticising the party over anti-Semitism.
Earlier, John McDonnell denied she was being targeted because she has criticised Jeremy Corbyn. Pictures: PHILIP COBURN SHE will grow to be five metres long, be able swim up to 100 miles a day and dive to 500ft – but she will spend all her life in what environmentalists call a “concrete coffin”.
Five-month-old killer whale Ula lives with six other orcas in a series of tanks separated by metal gates in Orca Ocean at Tenerife’s popular Loro Parque zoo.
Mum Morgan gave birth last September, despite SeaWorld’s decision to end captive breeding of orcas.
They have been separated over claims her “milk supply is not enough and (Ula) will need to be bottle-fed”.
Charities say captivity has affected Morgan, who does “demeaning circus tricks”, as Ula will too. Orca Aware’s Sam Lipman said: “The welfare repercussions would be similar to locking a person in a room their entire life.” They want both to be retired to a sanctuary set to open off Iceland.
Loro Parque was rated Europe’s best zoo in 2017 and 2018 on TripAdvisor. Three times a day, every day, Morgan and the other orcas do tricks for holidaymakers. Keto and Tekoa are from SAM LIPMAN ON ORCAS’ SUFFERING IN CAPTIVITY SeaWorld San Antonio, Kohana and Skyla from SeaWorld Orlando. Kohana and Keto had Adán in captivity.
Morgan was rescued off the Netherlands in 2010. After a spell at the Dolfinarium Harderwijk attraction and outgrowing her tank, she was shipped to Loro Parque in 2011. Since then, a number of legal appeals have started.
SeaWorld said in 2016 it would stop breeding orcas in captivity and a November 2017 financial report said its business with Loro Parque ended in September 2017 over “a contractual dispute”. Morgan’s pregnancy emerged two months later, with the park saying it was “confirmed four weeks ago”.
A killer whale’s gestation period is between 15 and 18 months. As Morgan had Ula on September 22, she conceived between March and June 2017.
Zoo guide Anne, from Edinburgh, said: “The baby was a bit of an accident.”
She added: “Orcas are not just here for shows. We do a lot of research.”
The UK banned keeping whales in the 1990s. Dr Ingrid Visser, of the Free Morgan Foundation, EXPLOITATION Mirror’s Nada at the park, left. Orcas perform their demeaning tricks for a few spectators, above and inset said: “Because she has spent so long at the park it is unlikely she will be able to be released fully. But that doesn’t mean she should do circus tricks or be used as a money-making machine. Morgan’s calf should be moved with her, to separate them would be another tragedy.”
Alan Knight, of British Divers Marine Life Rescue, added: “They should never have bred from Morgan. Her calf may be a breeding machine unless they are free.”
Loro Parque’s president, Wolfgang Kiessling, said: “We did not ask for Morgan. We were asked to accept her. “Killer whales are very active sexually so (preventing) breeding will produce a detrimental effect on health. We’ve never been interested in getting Morgan pregnant but how can we prevent it if we do not give medical contraception?”
Asked why SeaWorld ended its tie-up, Loro Parque said: “We never agreed in the breeding ban unilaterally announced and there was a previous agreement regarding killer whales housed here. As a result of this dispute, the property of SeaWorld Orcas were transferred to Loro Parque.”
It is like locking a person in a room their entire life
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