Marineland Continues To Fight Back With The Legal Guns – Sues Toronto Star For $7 Million

Some News and  Commentary by Doug Draper

Marineland – the 52-year-old amusement park that is a major tourist attraction in Niagara Falls, Ontario – filed a defamation suit against The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest circulation newspaper, late this April for $7 million.

Animal activists demonstrating in front of Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario. File photo, Doug Draper

The lawsuit against the newspaper is one of at least five that Marineland has filed in a St. Catharines, Ontario court since last year, after The Star began publishing what would be a series of stories, detailing a number of allegations made by former Marineland staff, about alleged cases of neglect or abuse of animals at the park.

The stories in The Star triggered a widespread reaction from people inside and outside of Ontario and saw what were regular weekend pickets in front of the Niagara Falls amusement park, which have been a mainstay for some 20 or more years, swelled from a few dozen to several hundred by the end of last summer, and culminated in some of the protesters breaching Marineland’s front gates and disrupting one of the marine mammal shows.

Along with The Toronto Star, Marineland has filed separate suits against Dylan Powell, a Niagara resident and representative of the activist group Marineland Animal Defense (M.A.D.) for $1.5 million. Christine Santos, a former senior Marineland trainer for $1.25, Phil Demers, another former Marineland trainer for $1.5 million, and Jim Hammond, a former land animal supervisor at the part for $1.5 million.

All these parties vow that they will fight these lawsuits and Santos has gone so far as to file a counter suit, charging that Marineland’s actions against her are frivolous, wrong and damaging to her.

For its part, The Toronto Star said it will battle the suit against the newspaper and two of its reporters “vigorously.” Marineland is charging that some of The Star’s stories contained allegations that are defamatory and damaging to the reputation of the park and its founder John Holer.

In the meantime, Marineland circulated a media release late this April saying it has complied with orders issued to it last year by the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPC) and the society’s months-long investigation of the park and its operations is over

The orders Marineland has complied with, according to information released by the park itself, include; attending to surface marks one of the park’s marine mammals, repairing backstage ceiling and lighting, having an eye specialist examine the eyes of marine mammals, making shelter areas for elk larger and providing the animals with a dry area to lay down, increasing the size the deer compound and preventing bears from reproducing.

So while we are waiting for the lawsuits to unfold – something that could take years, by the way – where does that leave us on the subject of aquarium and zoo parks like Marineland.

A Great White breaching off the outer beaches of Cape Cod. Never mind a petting pond. This where to see them.

I have argued for years that the subject is not so much Marineland and its founder John Holer, in particular, but the very idea of capturing and exploiting animals – particularly whales, dolphins and other wild mammals that belong in the sea – for our amusement.

The debate is not really with Marineland or Holer. It is with ourselves, to the extent that millions of us each year continue to support parks like this with our dollars, and with our provincial, state and federal governments in the United States that continue to allow the capture and confinement of these great creatures for entertainment purposes.

Harbour seals are a popular attraction off the shores of Cape Cod where we can visit them in their natural habitat.

This May, I will be travelling back to Cape Cod, Massachusetts and while there, I will be taking a boat trip off Nauset Beach on the Atlantic Ocean side where I can view harbour seals, dolphins and sharks, up to and including Great Whites, in their natural habitat – where they should be left to live their lives.

If we truly respect these wonderful creatures, that is where we will let them be.

You can read Marineland’s media release, titled ‘The Truth About Marineland’, by clicking on the park’s site at http://www.marinelandcanada.com/media/ , then clicking the title ‘The Truth About Marineland’.

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