Thanks To A Toronto Star Series, Marineland Is Getting Some Long Overdue Scrutiny Over Treatment Of Marine Mammals

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Following the first of a three-part series in the Toronto Star this August 15 – a series investigating the conditions under which sea mammals at the popular Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario have no choice but to contend with – a provincial member of parliament is calling on the Ontario government to set tougher regulations for the treatment of these wondrous living beings in captivity.

“Today’s (August 15) story about Marineland was truly heart wrenching,” said Cheri DiNovo, an NDP MPP for the Toronto riding of Parkdale-High Park of accounts by former Marineland employees of alleged lousy, life-threatening conditions for animals like ‘Larry’, a favourite harbour seal for park visitors who has reportedly gone blind due to skunky water conditions. “These allegations should be a wake-up call for the Ontario government to take the lead in regulating the treatment of sea mammals in Ontario. …

“How can we as a society put regulations on individual pet owners,” Di Novo asked, “but not on companies which use animals for entertainment?”

Allow this reporter who, two decades ago, wrote a series of stories for the St. Catharines Standard, chronicling concerns raised by former Marineland and employees ago, to take a stab at answering this rather naïve, however well-intentioned  question from the MPP. 

How can a society put regulations on individual pet owners – as in every day dog and cat owners- and not on corporation that exploits animals as exotic as whales for profit?

Well Cheri, how about considering the possibility that for the bulk of its 51-year existence, Marineland has been one of the most popular attractions (as it often put it) next to the Falls and a major tourist industry employer in the community. 

John Holer, Marineland’s founder who took a few dollars in his pocket and built this amusement park in to a household name, became a power broker in the community. Generations of municipal politicians began bowing to his way of doing business because they felt that whatever way it was, it was good for the city. Holer donated generously to the building, more than two decades ago, of a nice new animal humane society for Niagara Falls, making one wonder how the humane society could ever turn around and look objectively at any complaints involving the treatment of animals at Marineland, and, for a number of years at least, police officers need only show their badge at the gate and they could get their whole family into the amusement park for free.

Holer also donated the body parts of deceased marine mammals from his part to the University of Guelph’s veterinarian school, which was where pesky reporters like me were often referred to with our questions for the quality of marine mammal conditions at Marineland, so it was no surprise that for many years on end, veterinarians that school gave the mushiest of answers to our questions.

Then, of course, Marineland has spent countless multi-millions of dollars on media advertising over the years – you’ve no doubt heard the jingle; ‘Everyone loves Marineland’. – so why would the mainstream media want to bite down too hard on a hand that feeds it?

How much safer and easier it is for the government and media to go after some old lady that neighbours complain keeps too many cats in her apartment, possibly creating an odor of cat urine. Let the humane society squads from Niagara Falls and surrounding districts come in there, decide she has too many cats and take them away for possible gassing That is far easier than dealing with a powerful corporation that keeps marine mammals that normally swim for many tens of miles during a day in the wild in an bath tub full of chlorinated water.

 It is fine for Cheri DiNovo to push the Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty to take action following some disturbing information published in the Toronto Star. But let’s not forget that voices around the world, including animal activists and marine mammal experts in the United States and Europe, were raising concerns about Marineland in the early 1990s, when the NDP government of Bob Rae was in power in Ontario, and it did NOTHING! Nor did any Conservative or Liberal government before or after.

How much closer are we going to get to any government taking action this time when you can pass Marineland almost every day of the week during the summer and the acres upon acres of parking lot are packed with people taking their families through the gate at more than $48 a pop for an adult and more than $35 for a child ages five to 10? Then there are all of the busloads of tourists from Asian regions and other faraway places in the world pushing through the gates. Like the jingle goes; Everyone (or almost everyone) loves Marineland.

As John Holer often told me, people wouldn’t keep coming to the park in such numbers if they thought he and his staff were doing something bad to the animals in there.

In the Toronto Star piece, Holer is also quoted saying that “all (of Marineland’s) facilities are legal,” which is sadly true because Canada’s federal government, unlike governments in the United States, Europe and other developed regions of the world, has never established enforceable regulations for the care of marine mammals in captivity.

In 1992, a federal advisory committee sent Canada’s then Fisheries Minister John Crosbie a set of recommendations for regulating facilities that keep marine mammals in captivity. The committee’s report concluded that Marineland and two other aquarium parks in the country did not meet “optimum conditions” at the time for the breeding of orcas (more commonly known as ‘killer whales’) but Marineland went on breeding these whales and NOTHING was ever done with the recommendations. That was 20 years ago that those recommendations were tabled – recommendations that were not asking for any higher standards that were already in place for facilities like Sea World in the United States – and we still have no enforceable regulations for captive marine mammals at all, which may say something about our compassion, or lack there-of for these magnificent animals, as a country. 

As for the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums (CAZA), Marineland finally joined that joke of an organization about five or so years ago. The reason I call CAZA a joke is that it is a self-regulatory body of zoo owners that make it clear to almost anyone who calls with a concern that they are not going to gong one of their fellow zoo-owner members. I called this organization about Marineland 20 or so years ago, when someone was sitting on this body in an executive position who I was told by at least three reliable sources had worked at Marineland before taking up a post at a zoo in Atlantic Canada and did not like the conditions there, and I might just as well have been talking to a tree trunk.

Thus the need for tough regulations on these places, but even if they do that and the water is clean and the pools are larger, etc., etc., etc., what are we at long last doing keeping animals like whales that live in oceans where they normally swim 40 to 50 or more miles a day, in a tub? 

What are we doing it for? Our amusement?!!!! Are we so deprived of fun that we have to go see a circus freak display like that? There are all kinds of people, including some of the idiots in our school system, who will say that this is a good learning experience for children about these creatures. How could it be, when it is such a wack job of an environment compared to where they normally live.

What is wrong with watching a great National Geographic or Nature show, documenting the lives of whales, dolphins and other marine mammals in their natural habitat? Or if you need to see whales and other marine mammals in the flesh that badly, take a day or two to drive out to the east coast of Canada or the United States, and jump aboard a reputable whale watch boat. If you are that earnest about seeing these majestic animals in the flesh, you can do that, can’t you?

But don’t sit back and pretend that you care about marine animals, and go to a place where they have Ed Sullivan-like shows and petting pools to see them. What is the difference between doing that and kicking a dog or a cat? If you don’t know the difference at this stage in our supposed evolution as a human species, then maybe you ought to ask yourself what else you don’t know. 

If you want to check out the Marineland series the Toronto Star is running, then just go to your search engine and kick in the words; Toronto Star, Marineland, and you should be able to call it up. Here is the link for the first in the three part series from the Star – http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1241961–marineland-animals-suffering-former-staffers-say .

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