Marine mammals at popular Marineland attraction sick and neglected, Toronto Star alleges

Keeping marine mammals in captivity to entertain people has been controversial for years but even if you're OK with it, you have an unspoken understanding with the showmen that they'll at least take good care of their animals.

But the Toronto Star, in an extensive investigation, alleges that's not the case at Marineland, a popular tourist attraction in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

It turns out that contrary to the classic TV ad, not everyone loves Marineland.

The Star says interviews with eight Marineland employees have turned up turned up a pattern of neglect that resulted repeatedly in animal suffering.

The Star claims water problems have caused Marineland's performers to become sick, suffer fur loss, skin damage and even blindness.

Chronic staff shortages have left trainers unable to provide a minimum standard of care for animals to do well in captivity, the Star's report claims.

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Marineland owner John Holer denied there were any problems with water quality at the attraction, which he's owned for five decades, or that unhealthy water has harmed marine mammals.

"All our facilities are legal," Holer told the Star, adding Marineland also has more than enough staff to care for its animals.

Canada has no regulations governing the care of sea mammals in captivity. Marineland has been licensed by the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a self-regulating industry association, since 2007, the Star said.

The Star focused on several what it called troubling incidents at Marineland in the last few months.

They included two sea lions whose eyes were allegedly badly damaged, a baby beluga who died May 28 after a two-hour assault by two adult male belugas that the Star said former trainers attribute to understaffing, and five female dolphins who allegedly became ill and lost chunks of skin because of being forced to swim in a concrete tank full of murky water.

Holer explained the death of the baby beluga, Skoot, as a natural reaction by other belugas who sensed the young whale was sick with bacterial meningitis.

"If animals see another animal is going to die, they kill it," he told the Star.

The paper citied other alleged problems, including socially gregarious walruses kept confined in cramped, waterless pens, an orca (killer whale) kept in isolation, also bad for a species that lives in family pods in the wild, and eye problems and blindness in six of the park's seven seals.

Phil Demers told the Star he resigned this past spring after 12 years as a senior trainer, frustrated by his inability to help the animals.

"I realized I was no longer part of the solution. I was part of the problem," Demers said. "I can't train animals that are sick and compromised."

Holer stoutly reject allegations of neglect and abuse.

"We take care of the animals — better than I would take care of myself," he told the Star.

He denied his animals suffered skin problems and blindness due to bad water, blaming the ailments on aging.

"You have to understand . . . for people and all living things, there is a time to live and a time to die," he told the Star.

But record books kept by one supervisor log a history of problems with various Marineland pools from March 2011 to March 2012, the Star said.

"It got so that I didn't even have to test the water when I arrived in the morning," the former supervisor said. "I could tell just by looking at how sick the animals were."

You can read The Toronto Star's full investigation here.

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Animal-welfare activists have long opposed the exploitation of marine mammals. After several trainers were injured or killed at U.S. Sea World attractions, the company hired TV wildlife personality Jack Hannah to defend its operations.

The 60-year-old Vancouver Aquarium, located in Stanley Park, has de-emphasized Marineland-style shows with its marine mammals in favour of educational displays, and it no longer acquires animals taken from the wild. But Zoocheck still criticizes the display of belugas and dolphins at the aquarium.