By Barbara Cartwright | CEO
On Tuesday February 28th, I watched as the Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans heard its first testimony on Bill S-203, short titled Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act. This bill, introduced in December 2015, seeks to phase out the cruel practice of keeping whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity — which is happening now in two facilities in Canada — a privately owned, commercially-driven amusement park (currently defending itself in court against 11 animal cruelty charges) in Niagara Falls, ON and a public aquarium located in Vancouver, BC.
Former Senator Wilfred Moore explained Bill S-203 to the standing committee and detailed the innumerable reasons that Canada should end the captivity of whales, dolphins, and porpoises for good.
We are thrilled that this Bill has successfully proceeded to the Standing Senate Committee process and will continue to move forward under the sponsorship of The Honourable Senator Murray Sinclair, Manitoba's first appointed Aboriginal judge and former chair of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as Mr. Moore has retired.
As Bill S-203 continues to be debated at the committee level we will hear from marine welfare experts and scientists from around the world as they come forward to share their testimony in support of this Bill.
However, we already have concerns about committee members who have made it clear that they are not in support of this Bill some even seeking to suppress debate and scientific evidence on this issue.
Scientists across the globe have strongly condemned the captivity of whales, dolphins, and porpoises, known collectively as cetaceans, as captivity rarely meets their biological, social and behavioural needs, causing them grievous harm.
The aquarium industry attempts to justify the captivity of these creatures by claiming that their facilities make important contributions to science and conservation, but specialists in the field indicate that this is a blatant falsehood.
There are only two sites in Canada that currently continue to house cetaceans and on March 10 the Vancouver Park Board announced that they are preparing a bylaw banning cetacean captivity in city parks after the death of the last two belugas at the Vancouver Aquarium, housed in the park, last fall.
Thank you for your support which allows us to continue to work to ensure that this ban extends right across Canada.
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