Marineland protesters: time right for change
Animal rights supporters gathered outside Marineland Sunday for their regular Labour Day weekend protest.
This time, though, after more than 30 years of protests there was a feeling they might be at a turning point in the controversial history of the famous park.
Maybe, they said, change could finally be at hand.
One organizer, Melissa Hayward, said it isn’t certain if another protest will be held this year, during the park’s closing weekend.
Since Marineland founder John Holer’s death in June, no one from the park has spoken publicly about its future. It isn’t known if the family wants to continue operating Marineland, as it has since it was founded in the early 1960s.
No one from the park was available for comment Sunday.
“I’m hoping we’ll know more soon,” said Hayward, of Bradford, Ont., adding she’s waiting before planning a final protest.
What concerns her, she said, is what will happen to the animals if Marineland adopts a more traditional amusement park theme.
In addition to the one killer whale, Kiska, Hayward believes there are about 50 beluga whales on site, and the park also houses bison, deer and bears.
She fears the marine animals
could be sold as far away as China if the park is sold or changes its program.
About 50 protesters lined the roadway outside the park, some holding signs encouraging passing drivers to honk their horns in support — which many did — while others held up signs and shouted to families entering the park on the other side of the wire fence.
Police directed traffic in front of the park but the protest itself was orderly.
Catharine Ens, who helped found Niagara Action for Animals 30 years ago, said the time is right for a change in the way Marineland operates.
It’s illegal now to buy, sell or breed orcas in Canada and the only one still in captivity in this country is Kiska, who is in her early 40s and living alone in a tank at Marineland.
“I think the animals are almost an after-thought, like a come-on,” said Ens, of St. Catharines, citing a change in public opinion toward keeping animals captive in foreign environments.
“I think (Marineland) would do well without them, like Canada’s Wonderland does.”
A bill that would ban the keeping of whales and dolphins in captivity in Canada — dubbed the Free Willy bill, after the movie — is currently before the Senate awaiting final reading.
Ineke Medcalf, of St. Catharines, said “with technology now, they could do something educational using virtual reality, following the whales in their natural habitat.
“Really teaching kids … then they learn about the animals and their environment. What they see now is horrible.”
Ens agreed, saying it’s no longer necessary to have animals on site to run an attraction about them.
“One of the things is the depth of the water. Another thing is the amount of time they spend travelling (in the wild), which they can’t do here,” she said. “They just go in circles.”
Jason King, a co-founder of Animal Liberation Alliance London, from London, Ont., agreed animals don’t have to be kept in captivity for people to study and enjoy them.
“If you ask an eight-year-old about dinosaurs, they will tell you more than you can find on Google about dinosaurs. But they’ve never seen one.”
He said: “Why don’t we do something with this property that everybody can get behind, and get rid of this negativity.
“I would think that something is going to have to give … this is a dying industry.”
On Marineland’s website, a ‘letter from the owner’ states the park has allowed scientists and animal behaviourists to study its animals “so that their results can assist wild populations.”
But, the letter adds, a “small but vocal group of individuals are trying to impose their radical ideological views that no animal or mammal should ever be held in a zoo or aquarium” and accuses them of “spreading mistruths.”