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Outrage Erupts After 17th Beluga Whale Dies at Canada’s Marineland
Another beluga whale has died at Canada’s Marineland, raising concerns about the future of the controversial amusement park and one of the world’s largest captive whale populations. The most recent fatality is the 17th beluga to die at Niagara Falls Aquarium since 2019.
Neither the Ontario government nor the park have revealed the whale’s cause of death.
However, the province’s top animal welfare inspector stated that the quality of Marineland’s water was “within acceptable limits” and that a specialist unit of inspectors examined the water weekly.
Melanie Milczynski stated that enforcement officers have visited the park 205 times since the province took over animal welfare enforcement from the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 2020.
In late October, the whistleblower account UrgentSeas, co-founded by Phil Demers, a former walrus trainer at Marineland, posted drone footage of veterinarians and trainers attempting to administer medication and fluids to the ailing beluga.
“I don’t know how many days it has left,” Demers told the Guardian back then. “But, at this point, merely attempting to keep the whale alive isn’t good. Seeing this is heartbreaking. “It just kills you inside.”
Marineland, Canada, is the country’s sole captive whale aquarium. It made news last year when Kiska, the “world’s loneliest orca,” died of a bacterial infection after spending four decades in the park.
Marineland defends its policies.
Before her death, the 47-year-old whale was seen wandering in her tank, having not seen another orca in almost a decade.
The park, which has the world’s largest beluga population, has defended the quality of its care, saying that deaths were normal. Marineland’s professionals “care for the animals when they are sick and make every effort to save them,” according to an email from the park.
According to The Guardian, in August, Marineland was compelled to pay roughly C$85,000 (US$61,000) after being found guilty of three infractions of the province’s animal cruelty rules involving its captive American black bears.
The news of the latest beluga death has sparked an outrage among provincial officials. Marit Stiles, the New Democrat leader, described the outcome as “disgraceful” and promised to shut down the park if elected premier.
Bonnie Crombie, the Liberal leader, cautioned that there was “no accountability” for Marineland and the protection of “beautiful mammals”.
For Demers, whose public confrontations with the park have resulted in several lawsuits from his former employer, the tragedy exemplifies the province’s long-standing reluctance to intervene aggressively in the park.
“We’ve been forewarning the public for over a decade that Marineland’s whales would be dying en masse unless someone intervened to fix the conditions,” he told reporters.
“Now it appears that the government itself is preserving Marineland. It’s tough to trust your institutions when they consistently fail.”
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