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The Humane Society of the United States writes in a 1999 booklet "The Case Against Marine Mammals in Captivity":
"...confining small cetaceans (orcas and bottlenose dolphins) in a pool that is at best only six or seven times their length...is inhumane at nearly inconceivable level."
In 1995, the Vancouver SPCA publicly stated that the Vancouver Aquarium should be charged with cruelty to animals under the Criminal Code of Canada for keeping whales in captivity.
Cruel Facts
Of the 134 orcas which are known to have been taken into captivity from the wild since early 1960s 103 or 77% are now dead. The average length of survival in captivity is under six years.
Of the 56 Orcas taken into captivity off the BC and Washington coast, 53 have died.
Most captives die before they reach their early 20's, and yet in the wild females may live as long as 80 years or more, and males up to 60 years.
Since 1964, at least 23 cetaceans (orcas, belugas, narwhals, and Pacific white sided dolphins) have died in the Vancouver Aquarium-including three babies of Bjossa, the Aquarium's remaining orca.
If Bjossa lives as long as orcas live in the wild, which tragically is highly unlikely, she will face another fifty to sixty years of imprisonment. Regardless how long she lives, she faces a life sentence. She must be given a chance at freedom.
Captive orcas and other cetaceans routinely exhibit signs of stress- aggressive and self destructive behaviour, depression and listlessness.
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