The famous Canadian Marine Park Marineland, located in Niagara Falls, is at the center of an international controversy after threatening to suppress 30 Beluga for lack of funds. Once the top tourist destination, the park closed in 2024 overwhelmed by the debts and accusations of mistreatment towards the animals hosted. Today the structure declares that it can no longer be able to guarantee the maintenance of cetaceans, asking for an economic intervention by the government.
The ban on transfer to China
At first, Marineland had proposed to transfer the Beluga to the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, a Zhuhai sea zoo in China. However, the Canadian minister of the fish industry, Joanne Thompson, rejected the request, underlining that the transfer would only prolonged the life in captivity of the animals, without offering them a real improvement. The direction of the park, in response, sent a letter threatening the suppression of the Beluga if financial support or an apathing authorization had not arrived.
The federal government reiterated that the economic management of animals is the responsibility of the park itself and not of Canadian citizens. At the same time, Minister Thompson has left open the possibility of evaluating new destinations for the Beluga, provided that it is solutions that improve their well -being. In the meantime, animalistic associations denounce the situation as the result of years of negligence and exploitation. Since 2019 in Marineland, 19 Beluga died and an orca, a balance that has once again rekindled the debate on living conditions in water parks.
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The uncertain future of the cetaceans
Freeing the Beluga in the open sea is not considered practicable: grown in captivity, they would not have developed the necessary survival skills, such as hunting or interaction with other cetaceans. However, the prospect of mass euthanasia arouses indignation and pushes local authorities, such as the prime minister of Ontario Doug Ford, to evaluate the direct intervention of the Province to guarantee a dignified future for animals.
Today Marineland is the symbol of an unsolved dilemma: how to balance the need to close these structures increasingly desue and at the same time like protecting the well -being of the animals that were housed there and that today, in fact, they are found without a home.
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