Former staff members from Marineland delivered a massive petition to Queen’s Park on Monday morning, calling on the province to create laws to better protect animals in zoos and aquariums.
Ex-Marineland animal trainer Phil Demers — who was featured in a Toronto Star expose about alleged animal mistreatment at the privately-owned Niagara Falls amusement park — delivered the petition containing at least 76,000 signatures to Queen’s Park. He also held a news conference along with former colleagues and representatives from Zoocheck Canada, an animal protection group.
Premier Dalton McGuinty acknowledged the concerns expressed in the petitions but asked that everyone wait for the outcome of a joint investigation with the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
“My sense is we’re going to have to do something but I think we should wait for the expert body to weigh in on this [first],” McGuinty told reporters in Mississauga on Monday morning.
Demers and his group were told the petition couldn’t be physically left at the premier’s office and a representative wouldn’t collect them. NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo accepted the signatures and planned to deliver them to the legislature.
“Laws need to be changed in Ontario. They need to be established so that the suffering of the animals no longer continues and that Ontarians can rest assured rather than guess that the animals are being taken care of,” Demers said.
Demers said publicly acknowledging the problems he claims to have witnessed at Marineland came at a high cost for him, professionally and personally.
“Without the laws to protect [the animals], I was put in a situation where there was no longer anything else I could do,” he said.
“We implore this government: pay attention to what’s going on.”
Demers’ former co-worker, Jim Hammond, a former land animal care supervisor, said staff members had gone to the Humane Society with complaints, but said the one-complaint-at-a-time approach hasn’t worked.
“When I was at Marineland, it was always disappointing to hear that we were getting a call from the Humane Society maybe a day or two days in advance before they showed up to do their investigation. It gave [Marineland’s owner John Holer] and Marineland a chance to clean up their act.”
Hammond admitted he was “ashamed” of some of the things he was asked to do, and did, while working at the park.
“What Ontario’s captive animals need is a tough system of licensing, standards and oversight, not just a one-time inspection of one facility, like Marineland, because it’s in the news,” the petition stated.
“What Ontario needs to protect the animals at Marineland and all other facilities in the province is a tough, upfront regulatory system that requires permits, creates standards of animal management, care and safety that evolve with the times, incorporates punitive measures for non-compliance and that gives the public a legitimate way for their complaints to be considered and addressed.”
Click here to see the petition.