Latest Toronto Star Story Focuses On Conditions Of Deer, Bears At Marineland

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Congratulations once again to The Toronto Star for its continued coverage of allegations of animal abuse at the giant Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario from a number of the park’s former employees. 

Visible growths on a deer at Marineland. Animal activists who have visited the park say this is not an uncommon site. So where are the Marineland vets, Ontario animal welfare inspectors and Canadian zoo group CAZA? Photo courtesy of the not-for-profit group Zoocheck Canada.

In the latest in a series of articles stretching back over the past month, Star reporter Linda Diebel, along with colleague Liam Casey, the newspaper focuses on charges of abusive conditions not just for the marine mammals at Marineland, but for land animals like deer and bears in the park.

Charges that conditions for deer and bears at Marineland are substandard  – to say the least –have been made by former employees, animal protection advocates and some who merely visited the park and expressed upset at what they saw have been made for many of the 51 years the park has been promoted by its owner as one of the most popular attraction next to the Falls themselves. That same owner – Marineland founder John Holer – has always countered those charges with an insistence that all the animals in the park are well treated and, as he has been known to add, are treated with no less care than he would extend to himself and his own family. 

The latest Star story, published this September 8, 2012, begins with an account by Jim Hammond, the former land animal care supervisor at Marineland who resigned last year following what he described to be a less than humane death of a deer at the park. An excerpt from The Star story continues with Hammond’s account like this;

“It was the death of a little Red deer in the summer of 2010 that was the final straw for Hammond at Marineland. The deer’s foreleg was badly broken, with the bone sticking out, and it had to be killed. Hammond accepted that, but it was how the deer died he’ll never forget.

Hammond, an 11-year veteran at the sprawling facility, begged owner John Holer to bring in a vet to euthanize the animal. He says Holer refused, instead taking out his 12-gauge shotgun, shooting the deer and then driving off. But the wounded animal didn’t die.

“He was twitching quite a bit and his head would flop up and down,” Hammond recalled. The deer had been shot through the windpipe and was gasping for air.

He called Holer at home to say the deer was still alive and asked if he could call the vet to “do it right” or would Holer come back. According to Hammond, Holer refused, telling him: “I just got back to the house and got sitting down . . . You’ve got a knife in the back of the wagon.”

Hammond acted reluctantly.

“I don’t want to dramatize it, but when you do that to an animal, you remember it,” said Hammond, a big guy who clasped his hands and stared bleakly at the floor. “And it was a dull knife . . . If you take a dull knife across hair, it’s very hard to cut. It was like trying to cut into concrete. And you’re there not for a few seconds, it’s a few minutes.”

He paused and struggled to speak. “I’m ashamed.”

The Star story goes on to say that the newspaper could get no one from Marineland to comment on Hammond’s account of this specific episode involving the deer. A marketing spokesperson would only repeat that “all our animals are well cared for.”

As for the Niagara Falls Humane Society, what can one say about a body that is supposed to be devoted to animal welfare and has continuously refused to respond to concerns raised by the public or members of the media about the condition of animals at Marineland. A plaque on the wall of the building housing the Niagara Falls Humane Society, reading; In appreciation of the generosity of John Holer, who made this building possible,” pretty well lifts the veil on this bunch.

A deer at Marineland attends to an open wound. Photo courtesy of Zoocheck Canada.

In a recent comment to Niagara At Large, someone tried to defend the Human Society and Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) by asking what they can do if the animal protection laws provincially and federally aren’t strong enough. Well, they could start by openly and forcefully demanding stricter laws for places like Marineland but there is no evidence of that. There is also no evidence of them ever expressing concern about the conditions for deer and bears at Marineland even though lay persons have openly commented on cuts, skin sores and lumps on them for years, along with fithy water, a lack of shade, etc. for many years. Where is any evidence that anything has ever been done to significantly improve these conditions?

Yet a few weeks ago, Dalton McGuinty, the premier of Ontario, when questioned about the condition for animals at Marineland by Cheri DiNovo, an NDP MPP from the Toronto area, said his Liberal government has the OSPCA looking into it. Talk about the blind leading the blind.

Hungry bears at Marineland beg visitors for food. Photo courtesy of Zoocheck Canada.

The latest Toronto Star story noted that repeated attempts to talk to Marineland veterinarians about animal conditions at the park. One must wonder if they approve of individuals taking a gun to animals they feel are beyond help. Interestingly enough, that question was answered in the story by a Niagara Regional Police constable, Richard Gadreau, who was quoted saying that “Jon Holer is within his rights, as is any other animal owner to do that.” So I guess that means that any of us who have animals, whether they be dogs or cats or a deer or bear or whatever other species, can find a gun and shoot them if we decide their days are numbered anyway.

At the end of it all, I began writing about Marineland and concerns about the animals there as a reporter at the once-independent and proud St. Catharines Standard more than 20 years ago, and it just goes on and on, thanks to governments and animal welfare bureaucracies who let it go on, and to countless tens-of-thousands of people who shell out good money each year to visit this place.

When and how is this all going to end?

You should visit the latest Toronto Star story on this by clicking on http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1253334–marineland-allegations-of-poor-treatment-of-deer-bears . You might also want to do a little online searching until you find a contact line for The Star and thank both it and reporter Linda Diebel for investing the time and resources in this series of stories.

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