Animal Activists Promise A ‘Peaceful Demo’ In Front Of Marineland This May 16th – One That Urges Ontario Government To Stay True To Promises To Move To An End Of Marine Mammal Captivity In This Province

Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

Do you want to have a truly wondrous ‘whale of a time’?

Then get on the New York State Thruway, continue onward and eastward to the Massachusetts Turnpike until you reach the 495 cut-off to Cape Cod. Then drive out to the tip of the Cape, to Provincetown, where you can board one of the whale-watching vessels owned and operated by the Dolphin Fleet.

The crew of the Dolphin Fleet, accompanied by the good people from the Centre for Coastal Studies, will take you out beyond the sand dune shores of the Cape to the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary where you will have the opportunity to view Humpbacks, Finbacks and other magnificent members of marine mammal community, frolicking free in their natural habitat.

That’s my way of urging all and any of you ought there to show your respect for these great mammals we share this earth with by not purchasing a ticket to an amusement park to be titillated by the perverse sight of witnessing members of this marine community performing tricks and being fed and pet in concrete tanks.

That is why members of Niagara Action For Animals and other members of the animal advocacy community, along with growing numbers of people who just don’t believe in taking wild animals into captivity for commercial purposes, will gather in front of the Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario this May 16^th starting at 11 a.m. on the park’s opening day, to ask people through peaceful picketing not to go in.

This demonstration, unlike all the others held in front of Marineland for many years in the past, follows in the wake this past winter of the Ontario government promising to enforce first-of-a-kind regulations in the province for, as the government states it, “future acquisition or breading of orcas (killer whales), in Ontario.”

Among other things, the government has also promised to “require facilities that house marine mammals to have animal welfare committees on location (that) would ensure protection and oversight for the animals by supervising their care (i.e. visits by veterinarians with expertise in marine mammals).”

This is a good start after decades of provincial and federal governments making almost no effort to draw the curtains on marine mammal circuses in Ontario. But why, for just one of example of where these new rules fall short, stop at banning the acquisition or breading of orcas. Does the welfare of other marine mammals, including dolphins, beluga whales and sea lions, mean less? If it is wrong to keep orcas in captivity, why is it any less wrong to keep other marine mammals in captivity? Does the right of a dolphin or beluga whale to live free mean any less than an orca to live in free?

And that committee the province is promising should bloody well include members of Zoocheck Canada, marine mammal experts like Naomi Rose and others, and not just individuals directly or indirectly profiting from the captive marine mammal industry.

So there we go. Join the demo in front of Marineland or at least have the decency, if you care about our fellow living beings on this earth, to contact Ontario MPPs in your riding and demand that they support a ban around keeping any more of thesNoe animals in captivity.

Now here is an Ontario government piece on this, issued this past winter.

Ontario Takes Action to End the Acquisition and Breeding of Orcas

Ontario is moving forward with proposed amendments to the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act that will prohibit future acquisition or breeding of orcas (killer whales) in Ontario, effective immediately. The proposed new rules include penalties of up to $60,000 and/or two years in prison on first conviction.
It would also require facilities that house marine mammals to have animal welfare committees on location, as recommended in an expert report by Dr. David Rosen, a University of British Columbia marine biologist.
These committees would ensure protection and oversight for the animals by supervising their care (i.e. visits by veterinarians with expertise in marine mammals).

(Niagara At Large invites all of you who care to share your real first and last name on this issue t share your views below.)