After a visit to check on Morgan, we can report that she continues to have compromised welfare. She exhibits new rake marks and increased self-mutilation injuries in the form of hypertrophic tissue damage on her lower jaws. Unfortunately, whilst we were at Loro Parque (LP), the staff did their best to keep Morgan away from our cameras. However, during one brief encounter we managed to obtain a photograph of her open mouth that shows the continued wear of her teeth and alar...mingly, also appears to show that she has a fractured tooth. How that tooth was fractured is unknown. A conversation, tank-side, with Dr Javier Almunia and two of the Loro Parque vets resulted in the claim by them, that she had no broken teeth and no other health issues. We therefore requested a closer inspection of Morgan but that was refused, as was a request for a photo of her teeth up close. As Morgan briefly swam in the show tank, whilst we talked with the LP staff, we observed Keto, the adult male, closely shadowing her. Furthermore, for much of the time that we could view Morgan, including during the shows, she was either locked inside the medical tank or held in the east tank, with Tekoa, a male. After the announcement by SeaWorld (on the 17th of March 2016), that they would stop breeding their orca we are concerned that no ‘mistakes’ are made when monitoring her cycle and that she doesn’t get pregnant by ‘accident’. We strongly believe that Morgan should be separated from these two males at all times.
We also often observed her chewing on the concrete. There were tank renovations underway when we visited and the water level was dropped. This allowed us to document the damage on the concrete walls where she (and perhaps the others) had been chewing. Recent video on line, showing Morgan thrashing around inside the medical tank, has raised many concerns with us as well as the public. With all these issues at hand it is clear that Morgan’s welfare is compromised. We have called for transparency from LP and we hope that our request, as well as the continuing expressions of concern from the public, will prompt them to be open and honest. If we get relevant info, we will keep you posted.