A Commentary Doug Draper, Niagara At Large publisher
This August 2012 may very well go down as the worst month Marineland has so far had in its 51-year history – at least from a marketing point of view.
Hundreds of protesters line in front of Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario this August, Photo by Doug Draper
There has been the ongoing series of articles in the Toronto Star, detailing charges of animal abuse at the giant Niagara Falls, Ontario amusement park by former employees. And this August 26, for the second weekend in a row, there were hundreds of picket-waving protesters in front of Marineland, enjoying honks of support from cars racing by and chanting slogans about the park’s owner, John Holer, having “blood on his hands” to tourists heading for the park’s ticket gates.
At least a few times during the latest protest, a family heading for the gate would heed the chants and head back to their car to roar of applause from the protesters. Another couple that had been the park earlier in the day walked over to the protesters to express their disgust over the conditions of the bears and deer in the park.
To watch the protest and the vigorous support it received from cars of people passing by, it is clear that the park’s old jingle ‘everyone loves Marineland,’ played so relentlessly for decades on radio and television, should be amended to “not everyone loves Marineland’, although Suzie McNeil, the Canadian singer who now wants her voice stripped from the jingle, recently sent out a tweet saying that the tag line should go with the tune is “all the whales haaate … Marineland.”
One might wonder why someone like McNeil, who prides herself as an artist and seems to be an intelligent person, would sign a contract a decade ago to sing the jingle in the first place. A little research on the internet at the time would have informed her that concerns over the welfare of animals at Marineland go well back before the recent series in the Toronto Star that inspired her ‘pull-my-voice-from the-jingle’ tweet.
A couple from Australia, visiting a relative in Niagara Falls, join a protest rally in front of Marineland this August 26. Photo by Doug Draper
As for the jingle, why would Marineland want to change the punch line in its jingle when it has obviously worked so well for the park over the years, and is still working well, given the fact that the sprawling parking lots for the park remain even full, even while protesters are out there with bullhorns, urging those going to the ticket gates to turn away. Besides, how many times collectively, in this commercial culture we live in, did we demand that a advertising slogan or jingle be factual tests.
If all ad jingles had to be fact checked before they were aired, then I am straining to think of any of the most iconic ads in my lifetime that would ever be run. Does anyone ever think, for example, that as Michael Jackson sang in a ‘Pepsi Generation” jingle, that if you “guzzle down” a can of Pepsi” you are guaranteed to enjoy “the thrill of the day.” As the late American anthropologist Jules Henry once wrote, advertising engages in “pecuniary truth,” or a “truth that is not a truth but is intended to be so for commercial purposes.”
So forget about the jingle and some slow-to-see-the-light pop singer who is tweeting her belated guilt to her fan base now. McNeil’s belated guilt does nothing to bring back heroic animals like the dolphin Duke, an orca (‘killer whale’) named Junior, a pilot whale named Baby Jane who more or less beat herself to death, and others that died there long before she knew the difference between the lyrics in a jingle and some real truth.
Marineland founder and owner John Holer, whether he is delusional enough to believe that “everyone loves Marineland or not, at least has the guts to stand up for the place that he built out of a few thin dimes. He has been less visible than he has in the past when it comes to driving his SUV back and forth in front in the parking lot of the park, glaring at the protesters.Yet on a rare online statement on Marineland’s website, he defended the park against allegations of animal abuse.
“I have dedicated my life to developing one of the world’s best facilities for animal and marine mammal care, where guests can learn about animals through an exciting mix of entertainment and education,” Holer says in the statement. “Marineland staff members and I consider each Marineland animal resident a member of the family. I will spare no expense when it comes to the health and well being of the animals in my care. … I invite you to visit Marineland where you will meet and learn about some of the most magnificent creatures with whom we share this planet.”
Looking beyond the Marineland sign and any allegations of animal abuse, that parking lot to the Niagara Falls, Ontario amusement park is almost always full. Photo by Doug Draper.
Vilify Holer as much as you want? Is it really all his fault if animals are not being treated well in his park?
Where are the provincial and federal governments, and the agencies that should be working on their behalf, the federal department of fishers and oceans, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Ontario, and the local humane society? What about the veterinarian hired by Marineland? And what about the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums (CAZA), which has lobbied against tougher standards for commercial animal care on the grounds that it can function as a self-regulator of its members, including Marineland?
Then there is the province’s Minister of Safety and Correctional Services Madeleine Meilleur, who was quoted by a recent Niagara media group saying a couple of things – that her colleague, Niagara Falls Liberal MPP Kim Craitor says Marineland “is a very good tourist attraction,” and that she is upset that former Marineland employees have gone to the Toronto Star with their concerns before going to animal welfare authorities (like the SPCA and Niagara Falls Humane Society) under her ministry’s watch.
Well Madam Minister, why weren’t the SPCA and Niagara Falls Humane Society doing their job in the first place. If they were, they would have informed your ministry years ago that there are serious concerns raised by reputable public interest groups like Zoocheck Canada and Niagara Action for Animals, and by other former employers from the park and park visitors, about the condition of animals there.
Instead of coming on like you feel jilted that former employees and others are no longer going to agencies under your umbrella first, perhaps you ought to ask the question why people who have the courage to stick their necks out no longer feel confident going to these agencies. Could it have something to do with the lack of confidence that these agencies have had a record of giving this powerful tourist venue in Niagara Falls, Ontario a clean slate?
Do the right thing Madam Minister and strike a panel of independent experts to investigate and recommend new regulations for facilities like Marineland. Be the first minister in your position to do it in a succession of ministers who’ve held your portfolio, who have done nothing.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. Please note that NAL only posts comments by individuals who also share their first and last names.)
Niagara At Large 
I had noticed that the Marineland commercials are still being played on TV, over and over again, on every Canadian channel, especially CHCH-TV where there is a news story on Marineland during the news program and right after that there will usually be a Marineland commercial….I was disgusted in disgusted with CHCH-TV for doing that constantly in their newscasts but money and greed seem to have more power than logic i guess…
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Nice one Doug and some probing questions that few journalists are asking …
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Marineland, in it’s infancy 45 years ago had a bikini clad girl and a seal in an above ground pool,then some deer and a bear, who would pull a rope with a tin can towards him,. a machine dispensed peanuts for 25 cents that people could place in the tin can for him to eat.John Holer managed to buy the property that he was renting , also renting the property was an indian village basically an enclosure made of high post poles where native people would have a teepee and a pot of boiling liquid representing a lifestyle of two hundred years ago, I often saw several native women waiting for a ride home. The building that is now clad with concrete facing, had lot’s of broken windows and had been used as an internment camp for German prisoners of war.and used as a brass fitting plant . John Allen Park on Stanley avenue South was sold to John Holer for about 250 thousand dollars, Coats Animal shelter which was a new SPCA, was later bought and moved to it’s present location. I lived on Stanley Avenue South at the time (near the Marineland site) so noticed the changes taking place there. The City of Niagara Falls at that point had very little to entertain tourists. They were desparate for anything. Beggars are not too choosy.
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That there is NO REGULATING body to assure that these Animals, these so called creatures of God, are not abused, neglected, maimed and or die from captivity and/or by unimaginable living conditions, ALL FOR THE SAKE OF THE DOLLAR BILL. and the bottom line on a PROFIT and LOSS statement IS HISTORICALLY DEPLORABLE and SICKENING.
BUT Then again SELF REGULATION is one of the most prized TENETS in the corporate bible and :”LET NO MAN DECREE DIFFERENTLY” so sayeth the Supreme Court when they gave corporation in the USA more rights than the average electorate.
Ralph Nader once said it matter not which party wins THEY are both Corporate, basically, owned, and as such the Corporations gain and the people lose.
(1) The Law establishment is self regulated
(2) The Ontario College of Surgeons is self regulated
(3) The Insurance Industry in this province is basically self regulated.
through a government (Appointed) commission where
consultation is from a panel of mainly insurance agents
It is beyond belief that there has been no government intervention in this and other sorry messes such as Marineland.
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Unfortunately, those commercials are signed for in a contract, usually for the season. So, the media carrying them would be very unlikely to stop running them mid-term. BUT if enough people phone/write to the stations, it is just possible that they MIGHT reconsider for next year. Although, money does truly talk. Perhaps other companies who advertise would be willing to suggest that they will not advertise on those stations next year if Marineland ads will be run.
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‘Niagara at Large’ editorialized, a point of view regarding ‘Marineland’ in seven separate editorials which garnered 63 comments from its readers.
I don’t know much about a place like ‘Marineland’ or why the owner would deliberately abuse or misuse his extremely expensive main attractions.
However, ‘Niagara at Large’ also displayed an equally interesting article regarding the plight of child poverty including a picture of a three year old girl washing up from a bucket behind the open back hatch of her mother’s vehicle, which has become their residence of last resort.
However, the single article of poverty forcing the poor to live, with their children, in automobiles under the title of ‘No Fixed Address’ received only two {2} comments from its readers.
Interesting priorities!
A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Mr. Haskell makes an important point here, although as an author of five of the seven recent commentaries on Marineland and concerns over the welfare of animals at that site, I would suggest that it may not be so much a matter of priorities, as it is matter of balance – at the risk of engaging in a debate over semantics. The bottomline is that we should care as much about our fellow human citizens that have been hurled into an economic dumpster in this relentless deap recession that began with the collapse of paper money four years ago this fall as we do about the plight of other living beings on this planet.
The reason I have invested so much time over the past two weeks highlighting the Marineland issue is that I happen to believe that there is a strong correlation between the way we treat other creatures on this planet and the way we humans treat each other – just as one study after another conducted by the FBI in the United States and other bodies has shown that people with a history of abusing animals often go on to abuse other people.
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I too have noticed the bombardment with the obnoxious commercials.
I also know former employees who are investigating the possibility that they could be sued if they come forward before they speak out further.
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I’ll wait with baited breath for Preston to get out on the street and start a campaign or join with a campaign against poverty ….he may also be interested to learn that many folks that campaign against animal cruelty are the same ones campaigning against other of societies ills.
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Dear Cathy Hurwood,
You don’t have to wait with baited breath for Preston to get out on the street and start a campaign or join with a campaign against poverty.
All you have to do is go to: http://www.persnicketiness.net/nwc/nwc1210/index.html or
http://newsalertniagara.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2012-09-03T11:06:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=5&by-date=false
You might be interested in the fact that I was at the last domo at Marineland and that I have the pictures to prove it. I followed the Demonstrators into the Park and watched the as they chased the Parks patrons out of the stand. I witnessed the patience of the police trying to keep order.
Cathy, as far as I know Marineland is a legally operated company and until it becomes an illegal entity I cannot agree with tactics that abuses the law or abuses the owner’s privacy, his home, his family or his neighborhood.
Demonstrating in front of Marineland is enough to educate the public. Civil disobedience turns people off and defeats the message. That’s why I have yet to ad comments on this matter either on News Alert Niagara or The Niagara Winners Circle.
You can find out some of our activities at: http://newsalertniagara.blogspot.ca/2012/10/who-is.html you can also post a comment.
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