Marineland ordered to pay $85K after failing to improve living conditions for 3 young bears

Marineland has been ordered to pay nearly $85,000, months after it was found guilty under Ontario's animal cruelty laws of charges related to its care of three black bears.

The bears — Slash, Toad and Lizzy — lived in cramped quarters with little access to water for months, according to animal welfare inspectors who visited the Niagara Falls, Ont., tourist attraction in 2021.

The charges came after Marineland failed to comply with an order to improve the bears' living conditions following the visit. 

At a sentencing hearing in Welland, Ont., on Thursday, justice of the peace Eileen Walker accepted a joint submission from Marineland and the Crown that the park pays a $45,000 fine, or $15,000 for each of the three charges the park was found guilty on.

Marineland also agreed to pay a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as well as a restitution order of $28,000 for the costs incurred by the province in caring for two of the bears. 

Marineland faced a maximum fine of $100,000 for its first charge and a $250,000 fine for the two subsequent counts. There was no minimum fine.

Crown attorney Danielle Meuleman said on Thursday the $45,000 fine was appropriate, as the bears were kept in inadequate facilities with inadequate social and psychological conditions until they were removed by the province.

But Marineland lawyer Michelle Psutka noted that the charge was for failing to comply with the provincial order and not for animal cruelty.

"That's a significant fine considering that it's a minor offence under the [Provincial Animal Welfare Services] Act," she said.

Marineland agreed on Thursday to the payment deadline of Sept. 27.

Marineland says pandemic hindered work to improve conditions

Marineland was found guilty of three charges in March. An agreed statement of facts read in court then said the bear enclosures measured 48 square feet, with the two female bears sharing one.

The statement said animal welfare inspectors visited Marineland in early June 2021 and soon issued orders to the park, including to provide them with more space, a water feature that included potable water that was able to drain either naturally or safely through artificial means, and vertical surfaces to help fulfil their natural need to climb. However, the park failed to comply.

In February 2022, two of the bears were removed by animal welfare and brought to a wildlife rescue facility. The third bear was removed later in November.

Psutka, the lawyer for Marineland, said this was the first-time offence for Marineland and that the pandemic hindered Marineland's efforts to improve the bear's enclosures.

"It's relevant that this order and the attempts to comply with it occurred during the pandemic, it was difficult getting staff in to do the carpentry work to make these improvements to the enclosures," she said.

Psutka also said there was "no actual agreed fact in this case that the bears were actually in distress."

In a press release, Camille Labchuk, lawyer and executive director at Animal Justice, called the sentencing a "watershed moment in the fight to protect vulnerable animals from being abused for entertainment."

However, Labchuk said she is disappointed there were no restrictions on animal ownership imposed on Marineland, which "could have helped protect the hundreds of animals still trapped at Marineland, including the belugas and dolphins held in tiny tanks."