TORONTO—Animal Justice is deeply saddened by news that a second beluga whale transferred from Marineland has died at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, just days after the final six whales left the shuttered Niagara Falls park, ending the era of whale and dolphin captivity in Canada.
Shedd Aquarium confirmed Wednesday that Rain, a beluga who arrived from Marineland in mid-August, died alongside Beethoven, a whale already living at the aquarium. The aquarium says it does not yet know whether the deaths are related. Rain’s death comes after Peekachu, a 23-year-old Marineland beluga, died at the same aquarium from severe dehydration last week. Like Peekachu, Rain was captured from the wild in Russia and shipped to the notorious Niagara Falls theme park.
A total of 30 belugas were moved out of Marineland within a matter of weeks—a compressed timeline that appeared driven less by the whales’ welfare than by Marineland’s threats to kill the animals if export permits were not issued quickly. Also likely playing a role: the notorious roadside zoo’s reportedly pending real estate deal—conditional on the animals being gone, which could earn the park hundreds of millions of dollars.
“This fast-tracked mass export was an epic failure,” said Kaitlyn Mitchell, Director of Legal Advocacy at Animal Justice. “Thirty sensitive, highly intelligent animals were transported from Marineland in a matter of weeks, a timeline that likely had far more to do with clearing the way for Marineland’s real estate deal than it did with these animals’ welfare. Now we’re seeing the tragic consequences.”
The final transfers were completed earlier this week despite a complaint Animal Justice filed with Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson after Peekachu, a 23-year-old beluga from Marineland, died at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium less than two weeks after being exported. The complaint urged a pause on further transports until the remaining whales’ health could be independently assessed.
“These whales deserved better,” Ms. Mitchell said. “Under Ontario law, Animal Welfare Services had the option to intervene to ensure any whales in distress received appropriate care and that Marineland’s ownership footed the bill. Rather than rushing to ship the animals off site, Canada should have done its due diligence and made sure they were truly healthy enough, as well as properly prepared and conditioned, for transport. This saga did not have to end this way.”
Canada’s Wrong Perpetuated Without Breeding Ban
The plight of Marineland’s whales helped inspire Canadian lawmakers to pass groundbreaking legislation in 2019 banning whale and dolphin captivity, as well as outlawing their use in entertainment and breeding. However, the federal export permits which allowed Marineland’s surviving belugas to leave Canada were reportedly issued without conditions barring breeding.
This departs from both federal policy and the government’s past practices. Canada previously issued export permits for Marineland belugas to go to Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut and Oceanogràfic València only after securing assurances the animals would not be bred.
After repeated efforts to urge Canada’s Fisheries Minister to ensure the animals would not be bred at their destination facilities, and to ensure the spirit and intent of Canada’s laws is upheld, Animal Justice’s legal team has sent a letter formally requesting that Shedd Aquarium, SeaWorld, Georgia Aquarium and Oceanogràfic València publicly commit to never breeding the belugas they have received from Marineland.
“There’s no valid reason why a similar no-breeding commitment can’t be made now for the animals exported over the past several weeks,” said Ms. Mitchell. “These aquariums have an opportunity to demonstrate to the public that this rescue took place in good faith, purely to benefit the animals—not as a means to replenish receiving aquariums’ breeding stock and benefit their financial bottom line.”
“As a nation, Canada has put this dark chapter behind us of keeping social, intelligent whales and dolphins in captivity for entertainment,” Ms. Mitchell said. “But this historic moment is bittersweet because more of these animals are at risk of dying, and without a no-breeding promise, the survivors may now be used to perpetuate abroad the very wrong that Canada’s law sought to address.”
Contact:
Josh Lynn
Public Relations Manager
[email protected]
Kaitlyn Mitchell
Director of Legal Advocacy
[email protected]
