The Toronto Star goes behind the scenes today and exposes the truth behind those light-hearted commercials (which i TURN OFF every time I hear them).
Videos shot in 2011 and 2012 shows them writhing in pain or plunging their heads into a single bucket of clean water. Sandy often sits like a statue, dry as a bone. There’s no lens in Baker’s left eye. When a trainer put him back in the water in April, he barked and it flew out.
Dolphins in pens so filthy they can't be seen in water of such bad quality "Their skin fell off in chunks, their colour darkened and they refused to eat."
And there is NO ONE TO STOP THEM. The government refuses to intervene. The OSPCA is NOwhere to be seen.
There are no government regulations for sea mammal captivity in Canada. The Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a self-regulating industry association, first licensed Marineland in 2007 and national director Bill Peters says there have been no complaints. Its licence was renewed for five years at the end of September 2011, after a summer inspection by a CAZA team of experts.
In 1998, Zoocheck clearly outlined the horrific conditions these animals were being forced to live in, day after agonizing day. And still nothing was done.
In that scathing report, Dr. Naomi Rose (HSUS) clearly states:
Their eyes appeared to be closed the entire time (it was difficult to see their left eyes at any time or either eye on the far side of the tank). The leading edges of their extremities (the dorsal fins, the pectoral fins, and the tail flukes) all had the same type of skin condition—flaky and blotchy. The trailing edges of the dorsal fins and tail flukes were ragged and tattered. The rest of their skin seemed in normal condition. Their dorsal fins leaned slightly. Their girths were robust (that is, they seemed overweight). The skin condition of their extremities and their closed eyes are consistent with water that is over-treated chemically, but this could not be confirmed.
Another expert, Doug Cartlidge relates other substandard, worrisome and inhumane conditions:
Sterile and barren conditions within all cetacean pools in this facility are a major area of concern. Failure to provide an environment which mirrors an animal's normal living conditions demonstrates either a lack of understanding or a total lack of concern for that animal's needs. Regulations within the UK clearly require zoos to ensure all animals are maintained in as near natural conditions as possible for each species held. Paragraph 11 of the SSS states: "Animal enclosures to be equipped, in accordance with the needs of the species in question…in the case of aquatic animals, materials such as weed, shingle etc., to aid and encourage normal behaviour patterns among them." Even if there are no regulations in force within Canada there is no excuse for failing to keep ANY animals in as near natural conditions as is possible; barren concrete cages went out with Victorian zoos.Since its inception, Marineland has brutally and without conscience exploited sensitive, intelligent living creatures in the name of profit. These animals live lives of despair and pain, physically, spiritualy and emotionally battered every moment of every day; relegated to horrific, unnatural living conditions, forced to perform unnatural acts, in pain, they are used to "entertain" the oblivious crowds.
Further, it is not only the marine animals suffering, but the deer, bears and other animals as well.
PLEASE boycott Marineland!
I will follow up once I find out the best source to contact in terms of getting this place SHUT down and the animals moved to places where some quality of life will be achieved.
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