A Brief Comment by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
The legendary Jane Goodall, one of the greatest researchers on animals and advocates for animals of our time, recently called the Vancouver Aquarium down on its continued captivity of whales and dolphins.
Jane Goodal
“The capture, breeding and keeping of cetaceans world wid has come under increasing public scrutiny due to recent high-profile stories being released from industry insiders,” Goodall said in a May, 2014 letter to the Vancouver Aquarium that has somehow only surfaced two months later.
“The scientific community is also responding to the captivity of these highly social and intelligent species as we now know more than ever, about the complex environments such species require to thrive and achieve good welfare, Goodall continued. “Those of us who have had the fortunate opportunity to study wild animals in their natural settngs where family, community structure and communication form a foundation for these animals.”
Of course, too many of those who don’t give a shit whether animals live a dignified life in what is left of their wild habitat or are captured for some circus-like view of them, are going to give a damn what this great lady has to say.
But for those who might at least be interested in entertaining Dr. Goodall’s take on this subject, her commentary might just as well have been directed at Marineland, that popular entertainment park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, that features captive whales and dolphins.
I will say no more other than to ask you to please consider Jane Goodall’s remarks and to read the following letter she wrote this past May to the Vancouver Aquarium.
May 13, 2014
Dear Park Board Chairman and Commissioners,
The capture, breeding and keeping of cetaceans world-wide has come under increasing public scrutiny due to recent high-profile stories being released from industry insiders. The scientific community is also responding to the captivity of these highly social and intelligent species as we now know more than ever, about the complex environments such species require to thrive and achieve good welfare. Those of us who have had the fortunate opportunity to study wild animals in their natural settings where family, community structure and communication form a foundation for these animals’ existence, know the implications of captivity on such species.
I understand the Vancouver Park Board and the Vancouver Aquarium became industry leaders in 1996, when an agreement was made to not allow the keeping of cetaceans caught from the wild after September 16th of that year (with the exception of endangered species or rehabilitation animals that could not be released). However, the current permission of Vancouver Aquarium cetacean breeding programs on-site, and at SeaWorld with belugas on loan, is no longer defensible by science. This is demonstrated by the high mortality rates evident in these breeding programs and by the ongoing use of these animals in interactive shows as entertainment.
The idea that certain cetaceans “do better” in captivity than others is also misleading, as belugas, dolphins and porpoises are highly social animals which can travel in large pods and migrate long distances. In captivity, these highly vocal and complex communicators are forced to live in a low-sensory environment, which is unable to fully meet the needs of their physical and emotional worlds.
As society at large and the scientific community now reflect on the keeping of highly cognitive species like primates, elephants, and cetaceans in entertainment and research, I ask the Vancouver Park Board and the Vancouver Aquarium to do the same. The phasing out of such cetacean programs is the natural progression of human-kind’s evolving view of our non-human animal kin. I hope the Vancouver Park Board and the Vancouver Aquarium will be a leader in compassionate conservation on this issue, as you have done before.
Sincerely,
Jane Goodall, Ph.D., DBE
Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute &
UN Messenger of Peace
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