Kandu, an orca at Marineland, was forced to live in isolation for years. He died in December, 2005 |
“You can judge a nation, and it’s moral progress, by the way it treats
its animals.” - Mohandas K. Gandhi
Ever since the St. Catharines Standard wrote a story about
Baby Jane, a captive pilot whale with “suicidal tendencies” back in 1967,
critics and animal rights advocates have been trying to dispel the myth
that “Everyone Loves Marineland”.
Baby Jane would apparently charge head-on into the metal
bars of her holding tank, and then smash into the walls of it, “with blood
gushing from a gash in her head,” writhing “wildly about” and trying to throw
herself out of the water.
The paper had also reported that she’d been inactive since
she “arrived” at Marineland (read: forcibly captured and put on display) and
performers who swam with her regularly would swear she was crying.
A sad story. What’s even sadder is that, almost 50 years
later, we still have places that keep animals captive for our amusement.
If anything, the Inside
Marineland expose by the Toronto Star shows that the more things change the
more they stay the same. Every few years or so, some news outlet raises the
issue about keeping wild animals in captivity - this isn’t the first time the
public has been told that animals are suffering at Marineland - and they usually conclude that there
should be regulations in place to make sure the animals don’t suffer needlessly
during their incarceration, and that monitoring by some independent watchdog
group could ensure that the animals’ basic needs are met.
A lot of talk, but then things go on as they always have
and the whales, dolphins, sea lions, deer, bears and other animals suffer and
waste away as they always have in places such as these. And this little song
and dance routine between the media, animal welfare groups and politicians has
been going on for nearly six decades.
Concerns vary year to year, from tuberculosis outbreaks to
bear escapes, from deer attacks to an increase in marine mammal fatalities (over
40 whales have died at the Niagara Falls marine park since it first opened). Now
it’s water quality.
But ask yourself this: What if the water quality was good?
What if the seals’ eyes weren’t being burned out of their sockets by
chemically-treated water? Would everything be okay then? Does clean water
justify captivity?
captivity, n.,
the state or period of being held, imprisoned, enslaved, or confined; servitude
or bondage; imprisonment. – Webster’s Dictionary
For some, myself included, the answer is no. And I think
this is where the story fell flat with me. Exploitation, imprisonment and slavery
of other animals can never be justified. We put criminals behind bars because
they pose a danger to society and because they infringe on our rights and
freedoms. We imprison them not only because they threaten our security, but
because we feel they need to be punished for their crimes.
So what crimes exactly have these animals committed? What heinous
acts are they guilty of? If anything, their crime is that they’re smart enough
to be trained to do what we want them to do, but not smart enough to hide that
fact. And so we take away THEIR freedom.
They’re captured – torn from their families and forcibly
removed from their homes – or bred in captivity to live out the rest of their short
lives (confinement significantly reduces both the quality and length of life in
marine mammals) in artificial, sterile, featureless pools, made to perform for
humans who get to be with their families, and go back to their homes when they
tire of watching the animals “battle the Black Knight”, do water ballet or some
other ridiculous and degrading circus trick.
The animals that don’t die during the
capture or
transportation to the marine park often go insane or become sick and die
shortly after. Stress from captivity, as well as the young being
separated from their mothers, leads to health problems, stereotypical
behaviours,
aggression towards other animals - including their human trainers - and
death.
Their echolocation – sound waves they use to navigate through the water - hits
the walls of their tank and bounces back in a meaningless jumble of noise. A
former dolphin trainer described “the concrete tanks to the acoustical dolphin
are what a blinding house of mirrors would be to us.”
This isn’t new
information. Animal activists, former trainers, ex-employees and marine
biologists have been saying this for years. They’ve protested, they’ve
petitioned, and they’ve tried to educate the public any way they can.
And what has the public’s response been? It’s been to go to
Marineland, in droves, year after
year after year, to see the whales, dolphins and other marine mammals splash
about, jump through hoops and clown around. Sure, they might feed the sad-looking
bears, deer and bison on the way out, because they feel so sorry for them, but
they’re supporting cruelty and suffering nonetheless.
So the blame cannot fall entirely on Marineland. A naïve and indifferent public (or worse, a willingness to be naïve) is what shysters like John Holer count on. And up until now anyway, he’s been laughing all the way to the bank, along with the blessings of city councilors and the support of the police department.
Are we that heartless, are we so uncaring about the
suffering of other animals, that we can hide our collective heads in the sand
for so long? Of the myriad ways that we can entertain ourselves, and the
countless venues we can visit to be entertained, why do we still go to places like
Marineland? Do we really need to suck the life out of these animals just to
make our own lives more enjoyable? Are we vampires?
One of the most common retorts I used to hear from park visitors
while I stood leafleting outside Marineland years ago, was that if this place
was as bad as I said it was, the police, the government or the humane society
would have shut it down years ago. Naïve indeed!
The truth is, the law only criminalizes
“unnecessary” suffering,
and one can always argue that any kind of suffering is necessary
(torturing
primates, cats or dogs to find a cure for cancer would qualify as
necessary
suffering for a lot of people, as well as the “necessity” to see a whale
kiss a little girl under the guise of “education”) and since these
animals can’t tell us they’re suffering (although they do show it), we
tend to look the other way and comfort ourselves
with the delusion that the animals are happy.
The other problem is that animals are still considered
property under the law. That means we can do whatever we want with them, to
them, as long as they aren’t someone else’s property. And even then, cruel and
abusive treatment is only illegal if you do it to certain kinds of animals –
think of what the cow goes through before her throat is slit – and emotional or
mental suffering, like making a whale live his life in an oversized bathtub, or
forcing solitary animals like bears to live with dozens of other ones, is
rarely seen as abusive.
“All our facilities are legal,” John Holer was quoted as
saying in The Star. And he’s right (although Marineland has been busted in the
past for bringing animals into the country illegally, and pleaded guilty to 44
counts under the Environmental Protection Act for running an illegal garbage
dump in 1984), what he’s doing is perfectly legal.
So the question needs to be: Should it be legal? Is it right?
Places like Marineland, African Lion Safari and Zooz (!), make their money off the suffering,
exploitation and enslavement of other animals. Because we (humans) think that
we’re the masters of the universe, we figure it's our “right” to play god with the
rest of creation (how has that worked out so far?). Whales, walruses and sea lions are no more suited to live in
concrete tanks than deer and bears are suited to live in treeless paddocks.
It’s unnatural, it’s cruel, and it needs to be abolished.
I applaud the Toronto Star for having the courage to tackle this issue, but will anything change because of this story? Will
attendance take a nose-dive at Marineland? Will our politicians and lawmakers
finally wake up? To quote David Suzuki - who once called Marineland a thug and would
love to see it shut down once and for all - I’m hopeful, but not optimistic. As
long as good people continue to let evil triumph, to paraphrase Edmund Burke,
nothing will change.
Because next week or next month or next year, when little
Johnny wants to go see the whales with his class, or when the company holds its
summer picnic at the marine park, we’ll conveniently forget about all this, or
convince ourselves that Marineland has cleaned up its act, along with its
water, and that everything is okay.
Until we change the way we look at other animals, until we
extend our circle of compassion to INCLUDE the animals, their suffering will
continue.