A beluga trainer who was fired from Marineland earlier this year says the park’s crumbling infrastructure and lack of resources have created dangerous conditions for its remaining belugas and they should be moved immediately.
Kristy Burgess is speaking out for the first time about her experience at Marineland after the Ontario park threatened to euthanize 30 belugas if it doesn’t receive emergency funding from Ottawa.
Burgess says the belugas’ pools are in desperate need of repair, with their painted walls peeling and concrete chunks falling into the water.
She also says the water system at Marineland has broken down regularly, affecting the park’s ability to drop and raise water, which is crucial to giving whales medical treatment.
Marineland did not respond to multiple requests for comment with detailed questions about Burgess’s allegations.
Once a tourist attraction, the Niagara Falls park is now in crisis after the federal government denied export permits to move its 30 belugas to a massive aquarium in China.
The park said it is nearly broke and has no other viable options to rehome the whales.
Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson said she denied the export request because she did not want to subject the belugas to a future performing in captivity, which is consistent with a federal law passed in 2019.
Photo By: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
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