Last year, Last Chance for Animals sent an investigator into Marineland to see what was going on inside the park. The organization sent videos as part of a complaint. The Niagara regional police then charged Marineland for allegedly using dolphins and whales for entertainment purposes.
LIAM CASEY: Marineland has banned a number of people from its premises, some of whom have never visited the Niagara Falls, Ont., tourist attraction, days before the facility was set to open for the season. A lawyer, a filmmaker and a scientist are among those who received a notice of trespass, which are all identically worded save for the names.
The notices say the recipients “are prohibited from entering upon the property known as Marineland of Canada, Inc” and cannot enter the property “at any time for any reason whatsoever.” The notice says any recipients who do come on the property can be charged under the Trespass to Property Act and be subject to a $2,000 fine upon conviction. The documents are signed by owner Marie Holer…
Miranda Desa, a lawyer with the activist organization Last Chance for Animals, said she received the notice on Tuesday. That notice indicated the ban applied not only to Desa, but the entire organization, “its employees, volunteers, representatives, agents, directors and affiliates.” “The first thing that comes to mind is, ‘what are they hiding?”‘ she said. “I assisted Last Chance for Animals in filing a complaint against Marineland just last fall”…
Last year, Last Chance for Animals sent an investigator into Marineland to see what was going on inside the park. The organization sent videos as part of a complaint to Niagara regional police in September 2021 and its investigator gave a statement to police a month later. In December 2021, Niagara regional police charged Marineland for allegedly using dolphins and whales for entertainment purposes, an accusation the tourist attraction denies… In March, police reached out to Last Chance for Animals to ask for more photographs and videos, Desa said. “I think that they are seeking to prevent LCA from attending and seeing what’s going on,” she said of Marineland’s ban…
Rob Laidlaw, the executive director of animal rights organization Zoocheck, said he received the notice earlier this week. “It seems silly, they can’t really ban everybody,” he said. Laidlaw said he received a similar trespass notice several years ago. “I have no intention of going back, there’s no need,” he said… Sara Dubois, the chief scientific officer with the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, believes it must be her connection as an adviser to the Whale Sanctuary Project that got her on the list…
Others who received the trespass notice were mystified, including three advisers to the Whale Sanctuary Project, a proposed Nova Scotia coastal refuge for whales formerly kept in marine parks. “I’ve had nothing to do with Marineland,” said documentary filmmaker Harry Rabin, laughing. “It’s really weird.” He suspects the notice he received may have to do with his upcoming documentary Cry of the Wild, about the 100 whales that were captured and kept in Russian waters and bound for marine parks all over the world…
Marineland and the Whale Sanctuary Project had previously held talks about potentially transferring some whales at some point, but those discussions ended in December when Marineland released a report alleging the sanctuary waters were too polluted. SOURCE…
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