{"id":193737,"date":"2025-10-11T22:51:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T22:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/193737\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T22:51:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T22:51:16","slug":"the-30-beluga-whales-on-death-row-after-years-of-alleged-neglect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/193737\/","title":{"rendered":"The 30 beluga whales on \u2018death row\u2019 after years of alleged neglect"},"content":{"rendered":"

The beluga whales drift slowly and aimlessly in circles around a pool, a life of isolation that is all these gentle creatures have ever known for years, even decades, in captivity. <\/p>\n

For years, the 30 whales delighted visitors to Marineland, a Canadian amusement park that closed last year. Now the park, near Niagara Falls, is on the brink of bankruptcy \u2014 and its owners say a lack of funding has left them with no choice but to euthanise the animals. <\/p>\n

The plight of the \u201cdeath row\u201d belugas<\/a> has triggered howls of outrage from campaigners and ignited fresh controversy over the treatment of animals in captivity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole situation is pretty crazy,\u201d says Marketa Schusterova, whose anti-captivity organisation, TideBreakers, shared drone footage capturing the conditions at Marineland with The Times. \u201cThreatening to kill the whales that they profited from for decades because they can\u2019t get rid of them is a vile new low for the captivity industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Drone<\/p>\n

Drone footage from TideBreakers shows the marine mammals swimming aimlessly<\/p>\n

Schusterova has been investigating Marineland over alleged animal safety concerns for nearly a decade. Footage of the beluga whales was taken on September 21. \u201cThere are 30 belugas cramped into tanks in a shut-down theme park with nowhere to go,\u201d Schusterova says. She claimed: \u201cConditions have rapidly deteriorated and are the worst they\u2019ve been in the eight years we\u2019ve monitored the park.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThe tank is obviously dirtier with more waste build-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marineland had said it would have to euthanise its beluga whales by Tuesday if the federal government does not provide emergency funds for their care. The park\u2019s owners said the government had previously blocked them from selling the whales to a facility in China.<\/p>\n

Critics hope the park\u2019s owners will not follow through. \u201cTheir statements about euthanasia are hopefully bluster, just to put some pressure on the government,\u201d says Schusterova. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A beluga whale surfaces from a tank to be fed by an employee at Marineland<\/p>\n

CHRIS YOUNG\/THE CANADIAN PRES\/AP<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

CHRIS YOUNG\/THE CANADIAN PRESS\/AP<\/p>\n

Marineland was founded in 1961 by John Holer, a Slovenian immigrant, and was expanded over the years to eventually cover 1,000 acres of grounds. Rides and dining were added, as was the park\u2019s first orca, named Kandu, in 1971, which quickly became the main attraction.<\/p>\n

The park\u2019s popularity endured for decades until 2012 when the walrus trainer Phil Demers, angered by the alleged mistreatment of animals and deteriorating conditions, blew the whistle.<\/p>\n

Demers claimed that poor water quality and chronic understaffing was sickening the park\u2019s sea mammals. A series of articles published in the Toronto Star reported further allegations on the neglect and Marineland\u2019s alleged failure to maintain \u201cresponsible\u201d standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved my job at Marineland. It broke my heart to quit but I felt like I had no choice,\u201d said Demers. \u201cThe water quality forced me to blow the whistle. It was the fact that the life-support system couldn\u2019t sustain the animals. Everything was deteriorating very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

He claims that Marineland was \u201ccomplacent\u201d with repairs, which should have been carried out during the winter months when the park closed every year. Instead, small issues were allowed to mount and accumulate \u2014 resulting in the deaths of some animals, Demers says.<\/p>\n

\"Beluga<\/p>\n

The whales are fed by staff<\/p>\n

SWNS<\/p>\n

Demers, an employee of Marineland for 12 years, was later sued by the park for allegedly plotting to steal a walrus called Smooshi with whom he had purportedly developed a close relationship. \u201cTwo years ago we actually settled,\u201d Demers said, adding that under the deal it was agreed that Smooshi and her calf would be rehomed to another facility.<\/p>\n

A year after Demers went public the investigative documentary Blackfish was aired. It exposed the mistreatment of a killer whale in captivity at SeaWorld, showing that confinement caused psychological distress, aggression and shortened lifespans.<\/p>\n

The documentary became a touchstone in discussions about animal welfare and captivity ethics. Attendance at SeaWorld dropped by roughly 30 per cent in 2014, the year after the documentary was released, alone. Two years later it announced it would end its orca breeding programme and gradually phase out theatrical orca shows.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Exploitation labelled as \u2018conservation\u2019 is the latest way to lure tourists<\/a><\/p>\n

In the same year, the California Orca Protection Act legally banned breeding orcas in captivity or using them in entertainment performances. In 2019, Canada passed a near identical act, known as the \u201cFree Willy<\/a> Law\u201d, further crippling operations at Marineland after years of declining attendance and accusations of animal abuse.<\/p>\n

A series of animal deaths further tarnished the park\u2019s reputation. In May 2019, it was announced that the 18-year-old walrus Apollo had died of heart failure. It was the fourth walrus death at Marineland within two years.<\/p>\n

In recent years, 19 beluga whales and one killer whale \u2014 who had not interacted with another orca since 2011 \u2014 have passed away, according to data compiled by the Canadian Press. Beluga whales have a lifespan of about 60 years, but tend to have shorter lives in captivity.<\/p>\n

In August last year the park was fined under Ontario\u2019s animal cruelty laws for keeping three black bears in a cramped cage for months without sufficient water.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

Drone footage of the whales\u2019 enclosure<\/p>\n

SWNS<\/p>\n

Marineland has denied Demers\u2019s allegations. In previous public statements the park said animal rights activists had repeatedly and falsely \u201csought to equate any animal death with alleged \u2018abuse\u2019 by the facility caring for the animals\u201d. It said facilities were inspected \u201cdozens\u201d of times a year and that the park\u2019s animals were cared for by specialists who make \u201cevery effort to save them\u201d when they fall sick. <\/p>\n

Marineland also said it had spent several years attempting to find a permanent home for its belugas. \u201cThe humane relocation to an accredited facility abroad was the only viable option to ensure our beloved whales remained alive and received the care they deserve,\u201d it told the Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

As appetite for visiting animals in captivity has waned over the past decade, and after a series of controversies Marineland\u2019s decline has felt inevitable.<\/p>\n

For now, the future of Marineland\u2019s belugas remains uncertain. Although the park could in theory euthanise its whales, which would cost far less than the $2 million it is paying every month for their upkeep, Demers does not believe it will come to this.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will never happen. It could never happen,\u201d he says. \u201cNo person would ever participate in such a thing. No veterinarian would ever put their name on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, he believes it far more likely that the 30 belugas will be split up and meet a variety of fates: some may be relocated to facilities in the US, some may be seized by the Canadian government and continue to receive care at Marineland courtesy of the taxpayer, and some could be eventually transported to China<\/a>. Releasing them into the wild, however, is not an option. \u201cThey won\u2019t have any natural instinct and would likely starve to death,\u201d Demers says.<\/p>\n

A coalition of private investors, led by Knapp Capital Management, a firm in New Jersey, has meanwhile proposed turning Marineland\u2019s property, which has yet to find a buyer, into the \u201cworld\u2019s first global inland sanctuary\u201d for the park\u2019s animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of cards on the table,\u201d says Demers. \u201cI try to stress that when one door closes, more open with all these headlines happening. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The beluga whales drift slowly and aimlessly in circles around a pool, a life of isolation that is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-193737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}