VIDEO: New Marineland complaint ‘nonsense’: park spokesperson

An animal rights organization has filed another complaint against Niagara Falls park Marineland, after a new drone video emerged this week.

Marineland has not announced an opening date this summer and is in the process of selling off amusement park rides. Last summer, the zoo and amusement park said it was preparing for redevelopment under new ownership.

Animal Justice, a national animal law advocacy organization, filed the legal complaint with Animal Welfare Services after the new footage was released by another animal rights organization, Tidebreakers.

In June, the organization Animal Justice said dolphins and belugas were in “unlawful distress” due to noise from nearby demolition work.

The new footage shows belugas circling inside small, barren tanks and at least one beluga in isolation.

“The isolation tank provides barely enough room for the whale to swim and suggests that at least one more beluga at the notorious facility has fallen ill,” Animal Justice said this week.

 

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In the most recent complaint, Animal Justice has asked Animal Welfare Services “to take urgent steps to independently assess the health of the cetaceans who remain at Marineland, and improve their living conditions in order to protect their health and well-being,” the organization said in a press release.

Animal Welfare Services is a provincial body under the Ministry of the Solicitor General, responsible for enforcing the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act.

In response to the video and complaint, a Marineland spokesperson indicated Animal Justice is not qualified to evaluate the health of marine animals.

“Animal Justice is a group of Animal Rights activist lawyers who have never taken care of any marine mammal, know virtually nothing about them generally, and most certainly know nothing about the specific whales at Marineland,” the spokesperson told INsauga.com in an emailed statement. “Not a single one of them is, as far as we are aware, legally qualified to give medical advice or treatment to a gerbil, let alone a whale.”

Animal Justice made a specific medical “complaint” about a specific whale without asking any questions of Marineland, the park spokesperson said.

“The ‘complaint’ is nonsense, their assumptions wrong, and their conclusions uninformed and woefully and ignorantly false,” Marineland said.  “Their ‘opinion’ on whale health is as informed and useful as their opinion would be on the operation of the international space station, useless and pointless.”

The spokesperson went on to criticize Animal Justice.

“We assume it is a slow summer for Animal Justice, and they are looking for some publicity,” Marineland said. “A law degree is not a general qualification to opine on anything, but some of the law, and nothing at all in relation to marine mammal medicine. This ‘complaint’ is a waste of public time and resources better spent on serious issues.”

Animal Justice said Animal Welfare Services has inspected Marineland over 220 times since January 2020 and tested water quality in tanks.

“It is absolutely unacceptable that belugas are dying off one by one despite years of continued investigation by Animal Welfare Services. These iconic animals deserve better,” said Camille Labchuk, lawyer and executive director at Animal Justice. “We are calling on AWS to urgently relieve the whales’ and dolphins’ distress by providing veterinary care, improving their living conditions, and then sending Marineland the bill.”

Animal Justice said it also remains “deeply concerned” about the potential export of whales from Marineland to overseas facilities where animals could be used in entertainment and breeding programs, activities banned in Canada.

When asked about the possible export of animals to unethical facilities, the Marineland spokesperson said: “We have no idea what you are referring to when you refer to ‘unethical’ facilities or what that even means in the context of the question. It is a judgmental, bald, wildly conclusive allegation, without any information or support. How could anyone respond to that?”

Five belugas have died at the park in the last year and 17 have died since late 2019, government records show. Three other belugas sold to a Connecticut aquarium in 2021 have since died.

Kiska, the country’s last remaining killer whale in captivity, died in April 2023. One dolphin, one harbour seal, one grey seal, two sea lions and two Magellanic penguins have also died at the park in the past five years.

The park has previously said that the animal deaths are part of the cycle of life, and defended its treatment of the animals.

In 2020, Animal Welfare Services launched an investigation into the park. The following year, it declared that all marine mammals in the park were in distress due to poor water quality and ordered Marineland to fix the issue. Marineland appealed the order while denying its animals were in distress, but later dropped that appeal.

Last August, Marineland was found guilty under Ontario’s animal cruelty laws of three charges related to its care of three black bears and ordered to pay $85,000.

With files from The Canadian Press