“I could not in good conscience approve an export that would perpetuate the treatment these belugas have endured,” Ms. Thompson said in a statement.
She said she had recently visited the park and believed the health of the whales had deteriorated. On Monday night, Ms. Thompson said she remains open to reviewing other export permit applications and urged the company “to act in good faith.”
Beluga whales have a life span of about 60 years, but tend to have shorter lives in captivity.
In recent years, 19 beluga whales and one killer whale have died at Marineland, according to data compiled by The Canadian Press. The news media outlet said that the park is still home to four dolphins and a few seals, sea lions and bears.
(Marineland was fined under Ontario’s animal cruelty laws in August 2024 for keeping three black bears in a cramped cage for months without sufficient water.)
“Threatening to kill all their animals if they don’t get emergency funding is just repugnant,” said Melissa Matlow, a Toronto-based animal welfare adviser at World Animal Protection who has long pushed for the humane transfer of the whales.
She said she had recently visited the park and believed the health of the whales had deteriorated. On Monday night, Ms. Thompson said she remains open to reviewing other export permit applications and urged the company “to act in good faith.”
Beluga whales have a life span of about 60 years, but tend to have shorter lives in captivity.
In recent years, 19 beluga whales and one killer whale have died at Marineland, according to data compiled by The Canadian Press. The news media outlet said that the park is still home to four dolphins and a few seals, sea lions and bears.
(Marineland was fined under Ontario’s animal cruelty laws in August 2024 for keeping three black bears in a cramped cage for months without sufficient water.)
“Threatening to kill all their animals if they don’t get emergency funding is just repugnant,” said Melissa Matlow, a Toronto-based animal welfare adviser at World Animal Protection who has long pushed for the humane transfer of the whales.
She said she had recently visited the park and believed the health of the whales had deteriorated. On Monday night, Ms. Thompson said she remains open to reviewing other export permit applications and urged the company “to act in good faith.”
Beluga whales have a life span of about 60 years, but tend to have shorter lives in captivity.
In recent years, 19 beluga whales and one killer whale have died at Marineland, according to data compiled by The Canadian Press. The news media outlet said that the park is still home to four dolphins and a few seals, sea lions and bears.
(Marineland was fined under Ontario’s animal cruelty laws in August 2024 for keeping three black bears in a cramped cage for months without sufficient water.)
“Threatening to kill all their animals if they don’t get emergency funding is just repugnant,” said Melissa Matlow, a Toronto-based animal welfare adviser at World Animal Protection who has long pushed for the humane transfer of the whales.
She praised the minister’s decision to keep the whales from being sent to China.
“We need to take comfort that this is the last generation of whales and dolphins that will ever have to suffer again in Canada,” Ms. Matlow said.
Wildlife activists say a marine sanctuary would be an ideal place for the whales to live out their days, but such facilities are rare. A project proposed in Nova Scotia, called the Whale Sanctuary Project, is far from becoming a reality.
A coalition of private investors, led by Knapp Capital Management, a firm in New Jersey, has proposed turning the Marineland property and surrounding area into the “world’s first global inland sanctuary” for the park’s animals.
Phil Demers, a former walrus trainer at Marineland, said the company’s latest tactics amounted to bluster, threats and ultimatums, a pattern he said he witnessed while embroiled in 13 years of litigation with the company after publicly raising concerns about the inhumane treatment of the facility’s animals.
“It’s a life support system on life support,” said Mr. Demers of the park, which he claimed had an outdated water treatment infrastructure.
Chris Bittle, a member of Parliament who represents a district near Niagara Falls, said, “Marineland’s position of ‘give us money or the whales get it’ is yet another example of their failure to take responsibility for years of mismanagement.”
Vjosa Isai is a reporter and researcher for The Times based in Toronto, where she covers news from across Canada.
A version of this article appears in print on
Oct. 8, 2025, Section A, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Marine Park in Canada Threatens to Kill Whales
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