You know where my friend Posy isn’t going? Marineland. Me neither.

This is a special guest post by friend Posy. My mom and Posy’s mom have been friends for a long time. Posy and I hung out at the Digital Family Summit. I heard that Posy was doing her speech about the treatment of the animals at Marineland and I wanted to share it with you.

 

I thirst. I thirst for freedom of certain animals. These are the animals you think are happy. The animals you pay a lot of money to go and see. I’m talking about the animals at Marineland. I thirst, for them to be treated well. You may think of Marineland as a fun place for families to gather and enjoy amazing animals. But, have you seen what they look like up-close – the terror and horror in their eyes?  What happens behind the scenes is not what you think. How they are treated will not be a secret after you listen to me.  Today I’m going to tell you about a place where beautiful animal life starves and dies.

What’s so bad about Marineland anyway? I mean, they have rides, marine shows, and lots of wildlife to look at. While we are having of fun, we now know that Marineland’s owner, John Holer, illegally catches wildlife and now, Marineland has only 1 Orca Whale left: Kiska. She had to watch 26 of her own kind die, 5 of which were her own children. She is now sad and alone living in a small tank her own blood trailing from her tail. The secret behind Marineland is slowly being exposed.

The natural habitat of some of the animals that live at Marineland is the ocean. When they arrive to Marineland they are welcomed into tiny pools of salt water that are made out of table salt and water.  That’s the kind of salt you put on your eggs- not what they really need – which is marine salt. The land animals also suffer. There have been many complaints about the bears like how they are always fighting and killing each other’s babies. You’ll also notice that they never have the chance to hibernate, which isn’t natural to bears.

Many people lose sight of the animals while they are having fun, but MAD- Marineland Animal Defense-can clear your mind. They work to educate the public about what is really happening at the park.  I was lucky enough to meet one member from MAD, Mrs. Sephton, who is also a teacher at our school. Mrs. Sephton has written blogs about Marineland to raise awareness . MAD also protests in front of Marineland and was created in early 2011. It was made up of citizens who were concerned about the welfare of the animals. Their main goal is to protect the animals by telling people about what happens to the animals at Marineland.

One particularly sad story is about Junior, an Orca whale who didn’t like performing so they kept him in a ware house with 2 dolphins who he watched die then died himself sad and alone, with no one to say good bye to.

Male orcas spend their whole lives with their mothers and live in big family units. Clearly, this does not happen at Marineland because they get split up. Orcas swim hundreds of kilometers every day, which is very hard to do in the small pools

So what can we do about this? What can we do about what is happening to the animals at Marineland?  Don’t go! My family stopped going to Marineland 5 years ago when we learned about the treatment of the animals there. If people don’t pay to go, then they can’t keep the park open.

Are you going to do your part? I ask you – for the sake of the animals that do not have a voice. Don’t go…

For the justice of these animals – I thirst.

Here are the links to Mrs. Sephton’s blog posts about Marineland:

Not Everyone Loves Marineland and Please Help Animals of Marineland