Junior, an orca caught in 1984 off the coast of Iceland, spent the last five years of his life in a concrete pool in the indoor barn facility at Marineland, mostly alone.

He died alone.

“They kept him for four years like that, without normal stimulation and without sunlight,” says Cara Sands, just out of film school in 1990 when she began filming Junior, which she did periodically until his death in 1994. “When I first saw him, he was a young whale, curious, spirited and following me around the pool.

“Near the end, he was lethargic, very beat up and just floating. He faced the wall away from me and didn’t move his dorsal fin. He just rolled over and opened his mouth. This whale was completely broken, his spirit was gone.”

Junior died 18 years ago. But he wasn’t the first sea mammal discovered in dire straits at the Niagara Falls tourist attraction, nor the last.

Related: More on Marineland





Disturbing incidents, detailed by the media and chronicled in reports by independent marine mammal specialists, go back years. Frequently, reports have been presented to the federal and provincial governments, the Niagara Falls Humane Society and the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Last week, the Star investigated reports from former Marineland employees who said poor water quality causes animal suffering, including eye and skin problems, and who blamed short-staffing for the death of a baby beluga that was attacked by other animals. Their accounts cover decades and end with Brendan Kelly, a marine mammal trainer and stadium show MC who quit four days after the Star series.

Marineland denies the allegations, saying marine mammals at the facility receive exemplary care.

Thousands of readers reacted with sorrow and outrage, many of whom focused on four questions:

•How could this happen?

•Who is responsible?

•What can governments do?

•How can individuals help?

Groups like Zoocheck Canada, a national non-profit animal rights organization, have long researched and protested conditions at Marineland. Zoocheck and marine mammal specialists blame the lack of regulations in Canada for allowing the facility to ignore complaints and periodic bouts of public anger.

Junior’s plight, and the plight of killer whale Kiska, who lives alone at Marineland, is particularly relevant in view of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, which makes it illegal to keep a captive orca alone.

Animal activists say governments must step in with legislation at the federal and provincial level to protect marine mammals. But they stress it’s up to the public to make its voice heard in order to effect change.

There are no laws in Canada governing sea mammals in captivity. The animals exist in a legal void and the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums (CAZA), the organization that bills itself as the watchdog, is a self-regulating industry association.

The OSPCA has the power to lay charges under the OSPCA Act, but there are virtually no enforceable standards against which conditions can be compared in order to lay criminal charges.

One section of the act says that “wildlife kept in captivity must be kept in a compatible social group” for their general well-being, leading some readers to question whether Marineland contravenes the law in keeping orca Kiska alone.

As a result of the Star series, the OSPCA began an investigation Thursday morning, later reporting their work isn’t finished and information will be provided when it’s complete.

Nevertheless, Marineland marketing director Ann Marie Rondinelli put out a statement late Thursday saying “no major issues” were found by CAZA, a joint participant in the investigation, along with the humane society. CAZA national director Bill Peters told the Star the work isn’t finished, and said in a statement the process is expected to take a week.

The lack of legislation gives Canada a black eye, says Naomi Rose, senior marine mammal scientist for the International Humane Society, who visited Marineland twice.

In the United States, the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act sets rules for captive marine mammals that stipulate the reporting of upcoming acquisitions, as well as deaths, births, escapes and transfers. It prohibits the “take” of dolphins or other sea mammals from U.S. waters or by American citizens on the high seas, except by special permit. Activists are fighting to eliminate the exception.

In the U.K, marine mammal experts advised the government on the 1985 Zoo Inventory Act. Its standards on keeping dolphins in captivity were so stringent that, by 2012, the last dolphinarium closed.

Chile became the first country to ban the display, import, export and capture of most marine mammals in 2005. Every year more countries are enacting laws prohibiting capture and trade in sea mammals, including Mexico, Costa Rica and the Netherlands Antilles.

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Unlike many countries, Canada has not forbidden the import of wild-caught sea mammals. In a 1998 letter in response to Marineland’s application to capture whales in Canadian water, then fisheries minister David Anderson wrote to Holer: “It would be contrary to government policy for me to approve a beluga live capture . . . when the application does not provide an adequate outline of a beluga-specific education program.” (Zoocheck obtained the letter.)

A spokesperson for the federal Fisheries and Oceans department says that in the “rare” instances when there are requests for importation or capture of a sea mammal, the ministry ensures “the animal comes from a healthy stock,” that health risks are minimal to the animal and “all domestic regulations or applicable international agreements are respected.”

Marineland trainers are not required to have specialized courses and learn on the job. Former trainer Angela Bentivegna said she was alarmed to be called a senior trainer after four years.

Vets are legally permitted to practice without any specialized training in marine mammal care, not just at Marineland, but everywhere in the world. Marineland head veterinarian June Mergl opened and ran a cat clinic in St. Catharines for 10 years before taking over the marine mammal department at the park.

Julie Woodyer, campaigns director for Zoocheck, urges Ottawa to enact loophole-free regulations forbidding the capture, import or export of wild sea mammals and says the provincial government must bring in tough legislation.

Successive Ontario governments have promised change. During the 2007 election campaign, then public safety minister Monte Kwinter vowed to “crack down” on the people who abuse animals. Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government, he said, would work with animal experts across the province to develop some of the “toughest animal safety standards in the country.”

That hasn’t happened. Says Liberal MPP Lorenzo Berardinetti: “The OSPCA Act must be amended to give it real teeth to punish people at institutions. It’s simply not strong enough. . . The only thing they’ll ever take seriously is tough government regulations.”

He plans to lobby his Liberal caucus colleagues for change, including separate regulations for marine mammals.

NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo asks: “How can we as a society put regulations on individual pet owners but not on the companies that use animals for entertainment? The allegations of these (Marineland) trainers should be seen as a wake-up call.”

“I just don’t understand what’s happening in Canada. You are usually so progressive,” Rose said in an interview. “There’s just a disconnect in the national psyche regarding the treatment of animals. There are rules and regulations regarding sea mammals in 90 per cent of the developed world, but Canada is lagging far behind.”

In 1998, Zoocheck brought in a team of marine mammal (and other animal) experts to Marineland. They sent a report that described conditions as “appalling” to the OSPCA and asked that it be presented to the board. The OSPCA refused. However, the agency investigated and reported no problems at the facility.

The OSPCA won’t comment, citing its current investigation.

Rose recalls how difficult she found it to watch killer whale Kandu in 1996. The orca spent much of his 19 years at Marineland in a little gated holding pen off the stadium pool. Video shows this massive, majestic creature that dives to a depth of 30 metres in the wild, without room to turn around properly.

“His facility was ridiculous by standards in the developed world,” said Rose. “The quality of this life was terrible. He died young at 25 and he died a horrible death because of the conditions.”

Sands, now a communications consultant and animal rights activist, contacted the Niagara Falls Humane Society to issue a complaint and present her video after filming Junior. She says she was told they didn’t have the knowledge to deal with orcas. The Humane Society has not returned phone calls from the Star about her case or about reports from readers documenting their own written complaints, some of which included video.

Each trainer interviewed by the Star had his or her own heart-breaking story. (The Star has now spoken to 12 former trainers and the former water-testing maintenance supervisor.) Many remember Keiko, of Free Willy fame, who came from Junior’s pod off Iceland and is believed to have been related. After keeping him for 11 years, Holer sold Keiko to a Mexican amusement park, where the publicity began that eventually saw his gradual release into Icelandic waters.

One trainer said Junior was a “sad story,” adding that sometimes dolphins would be put in his tank. “They got along with him but would also pick on him, they would bite his tail and by the time he turned around, they were behind him biting his tail again. Dolphins were so much more agile than him in that tiny pool.”

Rondinelli from Marineland said the facility won’t answer questions about past deaths, or holding orcas for years in small, indoor tanks. Wrote Rondinelli: “We are focusing on what we do best — ensuring our guests enjoy their visits to our park, confident in the knowledge that all of our animals are well cared for.”

Read more on the Toronto Star series on Marineland

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