To the editor:
Vancouver Aquarium’s argument for keeping whales and dolphins in captivity—that only injured/unreleasable animals are retained and only captive-bred animals are obtained from other aquariums—doesn’t hold any water.
How many injured whales are ever found, waiting for us to rescue them? Certainly not enough to sustain a ‘business model’ aquariums can use to perpetuate the income present whale and dolphin shows provide.
With audio-visuals now, such as IMAX, we don’t need aquariums keeping and showing them in captivity which can’t possibly mimic their own environment.
We know it’s cruel to keep these creatures in such meagre quarters. All we’re really doing in the end is perpetuating their enslavement as a money-making scheme.
Liz Stonard,
Port Alberni
