5 belugas transferred from Marineland to an accredited facility

While SeaWorld is preoccupied with low-paying feats like the beluga sonogram stunt, Marineland Canada – another long-standing PETA target – is actually taking small steps towards progress: Last week, the marine park transferred five of its roughly 50 beluga whale imprisoned park in an institution accredited by the Connecticut Association of Zoos and Aquariums. In their new home, these whales will have the chance to receive the personalized care they desperately need without being bred, forced to perform, or forced to interact with patrons – victories that PETA and other advocacy groups helped secure in 2019.

The video above and photos below show fragments of a whale journey from Ontario, Canada to the Mystic Aquarium, their newest facility in southeastern Connecticut. Cranes, special shipping containers and an aircraft all helped to make the beluga whale’s trip a success.

Under any circumstance, moving five whales nearly 500 miles across an international border would be a logistical challenge. In a pandemic, this was especially true. https://t.co/uwWCdusKgt

– National Geographic Magazine (@NatGeoMag) May 22, 2021

In a massive event involving two separate flights and police escort, five beluga whales were brought to the Mystic Aquarium from Canada. https://t.co/xOXUcZJmla

– NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) May 18, 2021

Long and fraught migration: The Mystic Aquarium transports beluga whales by air as their defenders protest their imprisonment https://t.co/mXJab2SV3f via @BostonGlobe

– David Abel (@davabel) May 16, 2021

All five whales are reported to be “doing very well.”

This step does not mean the release of these belugas – because of the people who initially restricted them to tanks, they will never truly become is free… But their handover represents progress, and PETA hopes this is the beginning of an end to the Marineland exploitation and scandal.

Marineland has proven time and again that this is one of the worst places on Earth for marine animals. Last Chance for Animals noticed that the beluga whales kept there showed signs of eye problems, including redness, irritation and cataracts, as well as other medical problems such as redness and dampness of the throat. Marineland staff regularly deprive the animals of food for training purposes, and one beluga whale named Gia was accidentally separated from her mother and left in an isolated pool for a long time. three monthswhere she was so emaciated that her ribs were clearly visible. She later died of apparent bowel obstruction. Dozens of other whales, dolphins and walruses died in the park, including a walrus named Apollo who suffered a heart attack. And who can forget the obvious mass animal graves of Marineland, which, according to a former park employee, contained the bodies of more than 1,000 animals – killer whales and other dolphins, seals, walruses, bears, bison, deer and others.

Marineland has proven to be beneficial. Now we want to large thing.

PETA, the Animal Welfare Institute, and other groups helped persuade the US National Marine Fisheries Service to include provisions prohibiting the breeding and enforcement of animals in an import permit that allowed the transfer of five beluga whales to Mystic. If and when Marineland releases other animals still in its park, PETA strongly recommends sending them to coastal sanctuaries – a preferred move that others have already proven to be feasible.

VIDEO: Beluga whales return to the sea for the first time since they were caught many years ago

Please join us to advocate for animals like Pussy, who was kidnapped from her family in nature as a child as a child and is still being isolated in a Canadian park today. Show Marineland that you don’t like this travel trap that continues to keep and exploit animals:

Sign our petition: “I don’t like Marineland”