NEW After hearing thousands of last words, this hospital chaplain has advice for the living
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
A Florida aquarium has reached a deal with animal welfare advocates to release Lolita, a 5,000-pound (2,268 kg) killer whale held in captivity for more than half a century, officials said on Thursday.
The Miami Seaquarium said it had reached a "binding agreement" with nonprofit Friends of Lolita to return the whale, who recently retired from performances, to an ocean habitat in the Pacific Northwest within two years.
Lolita, a 57-year-old orca captured in 1970 in a cove off Seattle, is also known as Toki, a name that is short for the whale's Native American name of Tokitae, the Miami Herald reported. The plan to return Lolita to her natural habitat requires federal approval, according to the newspaper.
The process to return Lolita to her "home waters" was years in the making, beginning with the transfer of the aquarium's ownership to The Dolphin Co, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference. The company later partnered with the nonprofit to provide medical care to the whale.
The Seaquarium's previous owner, SeaWorld Entertainment Inc , phased out killer whale shows in 2016. Lolita, once a top attraction at Seaquarium, was retired from shows in March 2022 after management changed hands.
"Finding a better future for Lolita is one of the reasons that motivated us to acquire the Miami Seaquarium," The Dolphin Co Chief Executive Eduardo Albor said in a statement.
The push to free Lolita gained momentum after the 2013 documentary "Blackfish" highlighted the captivity of orcas.
Animal rights advocates for years fought unsuccessfully in court to obtain Lolita's freedom after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration added orcas to the endangered species list in 2015.
Killer whales are highly social mammals that have no natural predators and can live up to 80 years.
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
French police cordoned off the Iranian consulate in Paris on Friday, where a man was threatening to blow himself up, Europe 1 radio and BFM TV.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
An apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defences at a major air base and a nuclear site early Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan, an assault coming in retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Canadian banks that refuse to identify the carbon rebate by name when doing direct deposits are forcing the government to change the law to make them do it, says Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.