For this post, we’re not going to determine who acted as lead veterinarian for Tokitae (Lolita), the last of the captive Southern Resident killer whales, at the Miami Seaquarium. We will also not be examining who was present on her final day.

We will be using the timeframe of March 3, 2022, when The Dolphin Company took control of the park through August 18, 2023. This covers the time period wherein Friends of Toki became involved in her veterinary assessment and care.

We will be looking at three things:

1. Who could have acted as lead veterinarian.
2. Who should have acted as lead veterinarian.
3. Who could not have acted as lead veterinarian.

This will all be based on Title XXXII, Chapter 474 of the Florida state statutes, covering veterinary medicine, along with licensure records from the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation (DBPR).

Note that we are not insinuating malfeasance on anyone’s part. This is solely an examination of the legal framework, based on an extensive ongoing investigation and conversations with DBPR representatives.

Who could have been lead?

The most important thing to know in this exercise is that the State of Florida does not have licensure reciprocity with other states or nations. So, for example, while Dr. Thomas Holloway Reidarson shows up on a veterinary license search with with California Department of Consumer Affairs, he does not show up in the DBPR database (we confirmed this in a call directly with DBPR). This means that Reidarson cannot use his California license to practice veterinary medicine in Florida. But there is an exception to this rule, which we will explain shortly.

Florida licensed veterinarians who could have taken the lead on Tokitae’s medical care include:

• Miami Seaquarium attending veterinarians Dr. Shelby Loos and Dr. Jessica Comolli
• Any state licensed veterinarian providing services to another Florida facility owned by The Dolphin Company, namely Dolphin Connection, Gulf World, Marineland
• Former Seaquarium veterinarians experienced with Tokitae – Dr. Magdalena Rodriguez and Dr. Michael Renner
• Friends of Toki consulting veterinarian Dr. Stephanie Norman
• Any SeaWorld veterinarians licensed in the state
• Any Zoo Miami veterinarians licensed in the state
• Basically, any veterinarian licensed in the state

Who should have been lead?

Dr. Loos and Dr. Comolli, as the park’s subsequent attending veterinarians, should have taken the lead, unless they requested another Florida licensed veterinarian do so.

It’s important to note that while the Whale Bowl was exempt from the USDA license, the state’s veterinary facility permit is independent of that, meaning that the state still considered the Whale Bowl and the animals within it to be part of the Seaquarium facility and its veterinary permit. Any veterinary actions made within the Whale Bowl, therefore, were the legal responsibility of the Seaquarium and its attending veterinarian.

Who could not have taken lead?

We looked up a number of veterinarians that had the potential of taking lead and we were unable to to locate Florida licensure records for four of them – The Dolphin Company’s Dr. Guillermo Sanchez Contreras and Dr. Roberto Sanchez Okrucky, along with Friends of Toki consulting veterinarians Dr. Jim McBain and Dr. Reidarson.

Now, here’s that exception in the statutes mentioned earlier, which appears in 474.203(8): A veterinarian, licensed by and actively practicing veterinary medicine in another state, who is board certified in a specialty recognized by the board and who responds to a request of a veterinarian licensed in this state to assist with the treatment on a specific case of a specific animal or with the treatment on a specific case of the animals of a single owner, as long as the veterinarian licensed in this state requests the other veterinarian’s presence.

We have intentionally emphasized two words in this paragraph – to assist. This means that regardless of the fact that Friends of Toki lists Rediarson as Tokitae’s “lead veterinarian,” while he may be the lead to that particular organization, he cannot legally be the lead in medical procedures, which includes the administering of any fluids or medications. He can only act in a support capacity to the lead veterinarian.

Two final points:

• A veterinarian not licensed in Florida CANNOT prescribe or administer controlled medication.
• Anything that any veterinarian, even those contracted by Friends of Toki, does at the Seaquarium falls under the park’s veterinary facility permit and health care clinic establishment (HCCE) permit, the latter being required for the purchase of prescription drugs. Based on the law, and we’re not saying this happened, were a veterinarian not licensed in Florida to prescribe medication within the Seaquarium, it could have implications on the HCCE permit. Both the veterinary facility permit and the HCCE permit are tied in to “. . . the licensed veterinarian who will be responsible for the management of the establishment . . . ” It does not matter whether decisions were being made by Miami Seaquarium veterinary staff, TDC corporate veterinarians, Friends of Toki veterinarians, or consulting veterinarians at SeaWorld, one person is legally responsible for all veterinary actions at the Miami Seaquarium, including the Whale Bowl and Tokitae – the one person on whose license both the veterinary facility and HCCE permits are issued. That would have been Dr. Shelby Loos through March, 2023 and Dr. Camolli following.

TOP: Stephanie Norman and Jim McBain, credit: The Whale Sanctuary Project