“Marineland threatens legal action over billboard,” read the newspaper headline last weekend in Niagara This Week. “Here we go again,” I thought, as I read the article by reporter Richard Hutton.[teaserbreak]
The billboard in question shows various animals confined at Marineland, a family theme park in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Marineland has been criticized for its treatment of animals, going back at least as far as an extensive report, Distorted Nature, produced by Zoocheck in 1998! A combination of a series of investigative articles by the Toronto Star, and the extreme popularity of the movie Blackfish in exposing the horrific abuses and cover-ups of the aquarium industry, is awakening the public. Folks are understanding how the amusement they may feel at the sight of confined cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) comes at a ghastly cost to those animals and, too often, to the people who work with them.
The billboard was commissioned by Niagara Action for Animals (NAfA). A disclaimer: I am a long-time friend and admirer of NAfA’s spokesperson, Cath Ens, and have worked with the good folks at NAfA from time to time. I stay far away from Marineland after seeing how the animals are kept on the premises. Those conditions may satisfy the park’s managers and the Canadian Association for Zoos and Aquariums who insist on accrediting Marineland, but they fall far short of what I’d call ‘humane’ (for reasons found in the reports and investigations cited above).
The billboard is located in town and has a series of photographs freely provided to NAfA by photographer Jo-Anne McArthur of We Animals, who generously provides her photos to groups trying to help animals. The images were all taken at Marineland and show the park’s single orca, along with some of its large numbers of beluga whales, plus deer and bears. There is no appeal for money; there is just the simple statement, “They belong in the wild…Not a theme park,” along with the URL for NAfA (www.NiagaraActionforAnimals.org).
That’s all, but that’s enough to have prompted a letter from Hunt Partners, Barristers and Solicitors, a Toronto-based law firm, to Outfront Media, Inc., who owns the billboard, with the letter copied to NAfA. The letter states, “The Photographs depicted on the Billboard, clearly taken on Marineland’s private property, are subject to copyright, and any use, reuse or reproductions of same, without Marineland’s express written consent, constitute a violation of Canadian law, including, inter alia [it means among other things] the Copyright Act.”
I wonder if they tell that to all of the other visitors who, without monetary compensation, probably take tens of thousands of photos at Marineland each day, and use, share, or reproduce them “without Marineland’s express written consent.” That could be another reason to stay away from this place…
I’m no lawyer, but I am an artist, and I do take photos of animals (mostly wild). But, I also take photos in zoos for various reasons, including for reference for my professional art (to show that captivity often makes them obese, or otherwise alters their natural appearance) and to illustrate concerns about zoos. And, like Jo-Anne McArthur, images of my art (or photos), at times even the original art, is freely provided to organizations that are helping animals. (This concept of freely contributing “intellectual property” on behalf of a social cause may seem weird to Marineland’s management, of course.)
What seems weird to me is that Marineland never learns. The one thing Marineland should avoid is drawing attention to its tactics, both in terms of animal welfare and in its way of threatening detractors.
The aquarium industry and its desire to imprison cetaceans, all rationales in place, somehow makes me think of a huge, once-mighty, now lumbering dinosaur, staggering through swamp waters and dimly aware of an approaching comet about to trigger changes to which it must adapt—or sink into eternal oblivion. But, it fights the pull of quicksand, oblivious to the fact that strength may temporarily free it. However, adaptation is the last remaining key to survival.
The term “SLAPP suit” refers to a “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation” and it depends on overwhelming those who dare to speak out against something ‘wrong,’ by forcing them to exhaust their own limited resources against the powerful entity they have exposed. Marineland has threatened employees who dared to tell what they saw to the Toronto Star investigators, with what (to my admittedly layman’s eye) sure looks like classic SLAPP suits. And now, there is a threat against the billboard company—which is, cheers all around, standing firm—and, by implication, maybe against NAfA, as well. The Toronto Star is too big for this tactic to work.
Andrew Burns, author of the Hunt Partners letter, “demands” that “each addressee” of the letter must stop what he or she is doing, or legal action will ensue.
Might makes right, for dinosaurs and Marineland alike… until, that is, the comet hits.
Keep wildlife in the wild,
Barry