The 30 beluga whales at Marineland Canada — including four now at Shedd Aquarium — were at “imminent risk” of being euthanized, a longtime advisor and lawyer for the shuttered aquatic park told the Chicago Sun-Times Wednesday.
“The bottom line is we have expended, since the beginning of COVID, all of our available reserves of funds to keep these animals alive and rehoused,” said Andrew Burns, speaking from Toronto, Canada.
Burns said no more whales are scheduled to leave Marineland this week, but that the goal is to remove all of them by Aug. 31.
“It’s going to be within weeks, but we’re being very cautious about telling the precise date because obviously for the safety of the animals, it’s best that the actual day of the move isn’t publicized in advance,” he said.
Burns also criticized Canadian animal rights advocates, saying their dreams of a future whale sanctuary off the coast of Nova Scotia are “worse than pie in the sky.”
“They have convinced large swaths of the public that that is the answer to whales in captivity and they have had opportunities for over a decade or more to put in place a functional facility … that could take whales, and they have failed unequivocally to do it,” Burns said, adding, “It’s a great idea, but it’s like saying we should go to Mars. … [Marineland] is not about fanciful ideas. What we’re about is trying to take care of these animals in a real situation right now.”
Some of those animal welfare advocates have told the Sun-Times that they have raised almost half of the $15 million they say they need to open the sanctuary.
“Marineland made millions exploiting whales and dolphins who were forced to live and die in miserable concrete tanks, and now sits on some of the most valuable real estate in the country,” said Camille Labchuk, executive director of Animal Justice, a Toronto-based animal law advocacy group.
“They should make up for this morally unconscionable business by funding sanctuaries, like the one currently under construction in Nova Scotia,” Labchuk added. “It’s shameful that they have refused to devote a single penny of Marineland’s massive wealth toward giving the whales what they deserve: a sanctuary.”
Burns was effusive in his praise for Shedd and the other aquariums that have agreed to take the belugas. Burns said he was present “from start to finish” for the transport from Marineland Monday.
“To their absolute credit and our undying appreciation, they stepped up at the critical time,” Burns said.
Six belugas left Marineland Monday, four bound for Shedd and two more to SeaWorld in San Antonio. In preparation for the move, water was partially drained from one of the pools, The Canadian Press reported.
The belugas were placed into slings, before being hoisted into metal containers. They were then trucked to Toronto Pearson Airport, where they were flown in a Boeing 777 to Chicago and San Antonio. For the safety of the whales, pilots had to be careful not to take off or land too steeply, according to The Canadian Press.
Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario, has been closed to the public since 2024. Opened in 1961, the sprawling park has for years faced accusations of mistreating animals. The number of visitors had dwindled through the years.
Late last year, the financially strapped park applied for permits to ship the whales to a theme park in China, but Canadian authorities denied the permits, determining the move wasn’t in the best interests of the whales. Marineland then told the Canadian government that the park had two options for the whales: relocation or euthanasia.
Burns said Wednesday that it costs about $1.5 million Canadian a month to care for the whales. That equates to about $1 million in U.S. currency.
Euthanasia was a “real, direct and imminent risk,” he said.
Some Canadian animal welfare advocates have described Marineland’s threat to euthanize the whales as a “manufactured crisis,” that essentially forced the Canadian government to approve sending the whales to four American and one Spanish aquarium.
The animal welfare advocates say they fear that the aquariums will now breed the Marineland whales, leading to more marine mammals living out their lives in captivity.
Burns said there are no birth control methods for beluga whales. “Animal welfare activists have very fixed ideological positions that do not relate in any way to the actual needs and experiences of animals,” Burns said. “So in demanding that they not breed, what they are doing is saying that these animals cannot be allowed to live in their normal social groupings.”
He continued: “What they are really saying about Marineland is: Take family groups that have been together for decades and rip them apart and separate them so that families are broken apart. … I don’t agree with that at all.”