To Date, Six Beluga Whales & One Dolphin Transferred From The Shuttered Marineland Park In Niagara Falls Are Now Dead
A Brief Comment by Catherine Ens, a founding and leading member of Niagara Action For Animals (NAFA)
Posted October 23rd, 2026 on Niagara At Large
Catherine Ens, a founding member of Niagara Action For Animals (NAFA) at one of many demonstrations she has helped organize over the years outside the gates of the Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario. file photo by Doug Draper
Niagara, Fals, Ontario – I stood at those gates in front of the Marineland amusement park on Stanley Avenue in Niagara Falls, Ontario on & off since the late 80’s; organizing demos, speaking to the media, talking and writing about it, brought in speakers and dealt with over-zealous police and city council.
I am tired and old and the outcome is bitter.
It was one of those cases where, whatever happened, it wasn’t going to be good.
Marineland threatened to kill them all (all the remaining beluga whales and dolphins) and now, other places (where they were recently transferred to in the United States and Spain, only marginally better, had a hand in killing them with their supposed kindess or care.
The moral of the story is stop keeping animals in captivity.
One of many protests in front of the gates of Marome;amd pver the uears/
We can go on ad nauseum on how terrible the outcome was …but in truth, there was no way out for those animals. Not all (as I understand it) but some ‘facilities’ will go on to breed the living and so the next generation will be robbed of their ancestral rights.
They’ll be spinning in endless circles (in aquarium pool) until the footsteps thru the turnstiles in the parks where they are kept in captivity stop.
A few of Marineland’s many captive beluga whales, imprisoned there for the amusement of human visitors
The folks that want a distraction, a laugh, want to be in awe – they will leave an hour or two later and those animals will still be spinning in the pools.
And the terrestrial animals – ohhhh, sweet Jesus; a few lucky ones I do know will have some semblance of a life – some bears from Marineland further north in a sanctuary and a few more further south. What of the others who have come and gone since that living curio cabinet opened and those that remained at the demise of ‘Marineland’.
The seals, sea lions, the buffalo, the penguins, the deer, the elk, guinea fowl. Weren’t there peacocks too at one time? I suppose the only silver lining is that no more animals will suffer and die there – it is the only grace I cling to.
Catharine Ens is a founding and leading member of Niagara Action For Animals (NAFA), a non-profit, all volunteer charity devoted to ending all forms of animal cruelty through education, direct action and legitimate protest.
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