Top 10 Reasons to Shut Down Marineland
Marineland, the old marine park, is billed as "The World's First Oceanarium." It is located in St. Augustine, Florida, but there are also parks with the same name in Canada and France.In 1999, Florida was hit by Hurricanes Irene and Floyd, which forced the closure of Marineland.
In 2003, all of the park's buildings west of Highway A1A were demolished, leaving only the original structures along the Atlantic Ocean. In 2004, the park was closed completely for renovations and reopened on March 4, 2006.
One thing is for certain: Marineland represents cruelty, captivity, and abuse.
The park takes away animals' freedom, serves as an orca prison, misleads the public, and forces animals to live in conditions akin to being trapped in a bathtub.
While it's true that we need a life safe from danger like monsters, where you are given everything you need, on the other hand, a tank is too small for animals like whales and dolphins to live in. They are crammed in and confined, with a life sapped to dullness and depression.
Yet with all the issues in places like Marineland and SeaWorld, for all the backlash and reports about blackfish and abuse, it's true that places like this encourage such cruelty. It is right that we should shut this place down and start realizing and learning from our mistakes in how we treat animals.
What's the answer? SHUT DOWN MARINELAND!
No matter how you treat the animals there, they are wild animals and are under a lot of pressure to perform.
There are many incidents where animals and people died. Yet we somehow don't care about what hurts them.
What's the right answer? SHUT DOWN MARINELAND!
Just look at media reports of places like Marineland.
You'll see.
They treat the animals as if they were Cirque du Soleil performers, which is unnatural for them. This shows how cruel we are to the animals, not to forget that we pressure them to perform, which isn't right for them.
What's the answer? SHUT DOWN MARINELAND!
They lie about the animals and don't care about the stress they put the animals under. When people think they're learning about the biology of these animals, they are witnessing lies.
We've all heard about Blackfish at some point, and sure, they say Blackfish is a lie, but that's Marineland saying it. Does Marineland sound like a reliable source to you?
Have you seen the tanks? Some animals try to commit self-euthanasia to escape such cruelty.
Places like SeaWorld have been told there is a sanctuary ready to give the poor orcas and dolphins some peace and happiness for the rest of their lives. It's a part of the ocean sectioned off and about 50 times bigger than their current tanks.
There, they would be able to hunt live fish, communicate with family members, feel the currents of the waves, and actually swim and dive as their bodies are built for. Sounds great, right? Well, not to SeaWorld or Marineland! They are making millions from these darling creatures. Regardless of what they say about "family," they couldn't care less as long as they're making money.
There's a petition called #emptythetanks to help rehabilitate the animals and give them a chance at happiness.
But SeaWorld and Marineland refuse to!
What's the answer? SHUT DOWN MARINELAND!
In the wild, orcas live up to 60-70 years with a healthy and happy life, with freedom, a loving family, and joy.
In Marineland, the median is 9 years: short, depressing, lonely, and confined in a prison living unhealthy lives.
In the wild, orcas breed at 15, but at places like Marineland, they breed at 8 or 9.
They also continuously breed, and many of the orcas breeding are closely related. This means the orcas are inbred and will struggle with health.
So not only do they take orcas from the ocean, they inbreed them into a prison where they will have bad health to live with.
They feed their whales "fish," and each "fish" contains anti-stress and antidepressant drugs. They no doubt drug their whales.
By keeping them in captivity, the whales would have to swim 13,000 laps per day to have the equivalent exercise to being in the wild. But since they're so stressed out, they just lie in the tanks all day, which causes an energy buildup, resulting in aggression.
Whales and dolphins are very timid creatures. Stress causes death, and that's why they die so young.
This is also why Tilikum killed a "trainer" and later died at SeaWorld after a life of 35 years in captivity.
What's the answer? SHUT DOWN MARINELAND! And also shut down SeaWorld.
In the wild, orcas rarely have collapsed dorsal fins. Only 1% in fact.
This is much more common for orcas in captivity because it is unhealthy. "Trainers" are not trained biologists.
SHUT DOWN MARINELAND!
This is crazy and so sad. We must never treat animals in such cruel ways.