The Miami-Dade commission has served eviction papers to the Dolphin Company, the owners of the Miami Seaquarium, after the company presided over severe neglect and poor conditions for animals in their care for many years. The Miami-Dade commission has ordered the Dolphin Company to vacate the premises by the 21^st of April 2024. The commission’s letter cited violations of the lease agreement which included “not just a default, but a complete disregard for the safety of the animals housed on the premises.”

The history of the park is one of sadness, neglect, cruelty and enslavement for animals. The park’s history as an amenity for humans on the other hand, is one in which it enriched a private company and in the park’s earlier years was the third largest contributor to Miami-Dade County’s revenue through lease and tax payments.

The park is behind at least $180,000 in rent, which is one reason for the Miami-Dade commission’s decision. The decision was also motivated by the park’s numerous USDA violations and the loss of its Humane Society of America certification. Animal rights organizations have spoken out against the facility for years, in some cases managing to rescue animals, such as a pair of manatees, Romeo and Juliet. At least 120 dolphins and whales have died in captivity at the park. A dolphin named Sundance recently died shortly after a USDA inspection, where it was noted that the dolphin had “signs of gastric distress.” Federal inspections showed that the park’s infrastructure was deteriorating. A dolphin was found with a two-inch nail in its throat. Another dolphin was found with a broken metal bolt in its mouth.

One of the park’s major problems was that it couldn’t keep staff. Multiple staff resigned at the conditions of the park, and some alleged retaliation when they tried to speak up against the conditions. Due to money problems and difficulty retaining staff, the park didn’t have enough veterinarians to attend to the animals. The veterinary lab lacked basic tools and the animals were denied surgery, including a sea lion with eye pain, who stopped eating. One of the park’s animals, an Orca named Tokitae, gained recognition for all the wrong reasons, because the tank she was forced to live in was the nation’s smallest tank. Since coming to the world’s attention, Toki, also known as Lolita, has died.

Why did it take so long for the neglect to be put to an end? There is a bureaucratic process that has to happen to hold such facilities accountable. The park was known to be an unhealthy and cruel place for animals to live for decades. Attention wasn’t focused on the park soon enough because parks like these were for many years deemed to be acceptable entertainment and education for humans. The roles of animals at these parks, who are forced to perform for humans, and who are kept in restrictive conditions and separate from family members, were not questioned. It’s now time to question the rationale for keeping animals in these facilities. There may be some conservation reasons for keeping some species of animals captive, but even then, keeping animals in captivity, where they can be exploited, should be viewed with public skepticism and treated as a last resort.

Animal welfare services are investigating the Ontario marine park where 14 whales and 1 dolphin have died in the space of a few years. The park is a big employer in the area and it has denied any wrongdoing, including any water quality issues that could have led to deaths at the park.  

The park has a vested interest in keeping animals in roles where they are visible to the public, and formerly held shows in which its animals performed tricks and members of the public could feed its animals. 

During a 2 year period, 12 beluga whales died. At the same time, provincial authorities had raised concerns about the park’s water quality and had recognized that all of the marine mammals were in distress. There have been protests and demonstrations for many years against the treatment of animals in the park. Citations against the park have resulted in 5 counts of animal cruelty by the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 2016 and 6 counts of cruelty by the OSPCA in 2017. 

The animals that died include a beluga whale named Ikora, who died on October 24th 2019 and 10 others including a beluga named Bull, who died on November 23, 2021. 3 more deaths were confirmed in 2023, including Kisko, who was called “the world’s loneliest whale.” She was the last killer whale in captivity in Canada, and was originally captured along with Keiko, the star of Free Willy. She endured loneliness throughout her life in captivity, as she was confined to a small tank without companions. She died at the age of 47. The other animals who died in 2023 were a dolphin and a whale.

At one time Marineland had the most captive belugas in the world. Since Canada passed a law phasing out marine captivity, the park was forced to adjust. It is now shifting towards educational efforts. The animals are no longer available to the public and forced to perform tricks.

The lack of information surrounding the deaths of these animals obscures the conditions they may have been living in before they died. Captivity not only exposes animals to psychological risks of loneliness and confinement and the psychological pressure of being on display, animals could also suffer from neglect, poor environmental conditions and chronic health issues. Marine animal captivity should not be the norm unless it is explicitly for conservation purposes. The profit bottom line too often exposes animals to the risk of cruelty and neglect. 

Spain’s new animal rights law has notable exceptions that teach us a lot about how people view animals. 

Spain has made it illegal to leave pets alone. Wild animals have been banned from the circus and marine parks are not allowed to keep any new dolphins in captivity that haven’t already lived in the marine park for most of their lives. Pets can no longer be bought from pet-shops or online. Only licensed breeders can sell pets. Mandatory pet insurance and registration is also required.

One of the quirks of the law is that it leaves out certain animals that feature in cultural activities in Spain. Hunting dogs are excluded from the legislation after the hunting lobby fought for the exception. Bullfights are also left out of the legislation, despite being one of the cruelest sports involving animals. 

Bullfighting involves stabbing a bull with lances to weaken the animal, then eventually killing the bull. The bull is led into the ring, greeted by a matador, then jabbed by picadors and usually killed by the matador. The “sport” consists of introducing an animal to an extremely stressful situation– a ring with a large cheering audience — baiting and disorienting the animal, wounding it, then killing it. It is an activity that animal rights activists have long fought against. It is losing favor with the public even in places like Spain where bullfighting is traditional. Leaving it out of a sweeping animal rights law is arbitrary and caters to humans, leaving animals to suffer.                                                                                   

The fact that these exceptions are left standing says a lot about how humans prioritize the beings who are worthy of dignity and protection. Working animals, lab animals or animals like invertebrates are often left out of animal rights laws. Animal protection is still a cultural exercise enacted by humans who feel a closer relationship with some animals than others due to tradition, culture and the extent to which humans recognize traits of themselves in the animal. Many of the provisions in Spain’s animal rights law have been welcomed by activists, but the law does not yet achieve the goal of animal rights, which is to treat animals as if they have equal rights to humans, and each other.