Marineland sues OSPCA after animal cruelty charges are dropped

A friend that lives in the area claimed that the allegations of abuse from a former employee were part of him trying to get a government regulation position. This and the fact that there were no abuse findings sort of backs that up but who knows.

I love Dragon Mountain and am in the Falls area regularly but have not been in several years. It eventually struck me that it really wasn't a pleasant experience to visit there. The layout is bizarre and the employees and animals all look miserable.

It's been 12 years since I was there, but I don't remember the animals looking particularly miserable, at least no more than in your average zoo. My wife loved the deer park, where you can walk among tons of them and feed them all. Maybe they were miserable, but they were damned adorable. I'm a cruel bastard like that.

What does a miserable animal look like? Does it dress in black and stare at the floor?

Bears in a concrete paddock begging for guests to throw them food is pretty sad to me. While Marineland may not run afoul of any laws, its facilities make Sea World look like a five diamond resort for animals.

How did you know they were begging? Did you hear their desperate pleas for food? What they were more likely doing was responding to humans throwing them food or gesturing toward them.

I've worked for a large zoo for nearly 20 years. You would be surprised at how often normal animal behavior is interpreted by armchair zoologists as "the penguins look hungry" or "the zebras look sad".

Jeff said:
What does a miserable animal look like? Does it dress in black and stare at the floor?

...while smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee late night at Waffle House.

PhantomTails said:

Bears in a concrete paddock begging for guests to throw them food is pretty sad to me. While Marineland may not run afoul of any laws, its facilities make Sea World look like a five diamond resort for animals.

This is exactly what comes to mind with what a miserable animal looks like at Marineland. They move like molasses, look filthy, just stare at a concrete wall. I've seen bears living in containment in sanctuaries and they don't look or behave like that.

Jeff said:
What does a miserable animal look like? Does it dress in black and stare at the floor?

Signs are pacing back and forth, unusual behavior, or he could be referring to their physical appearance with missing patches of hair from where they pick or scratch the same area often.

There are a lot of signs miserable animals make when in captivity.

It even has its own word.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypy_(non-human)

My cat paces back and forth. That's hardly a measure of miserable.

I guess we can tell those folks to call of their research since you think your cat is fine.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166432802001110?via%3Dihub

Jeff said:
My cat paces back and forth. That's hardly a measure of miserable.

All day every day?

So I’m guessing now working at Sea World makes you an expert on animal behavior?

Seriously, there are behaviors that animals who aren’t being treated well exhibit. I’d imagine Vater is probably somewhat aware of it and that’s what he meant by his comment.

I reply with anecdotes to anecdotes and I'm the one with a credibility problem. Again, how does one measure, and who has measured, the miserable level of Marineworld animals?

I don't know jack about the place. Never been there, never will. That said, the problem in most of these debates is that people confuse the ethical and moral questions about animals in captivity with whether or not they're mistreated.

We were there 14 years ago, and we took the bears as being clever more than begging. They were smart enough to sit up and waive to people, getting the people (including the 3 kids we brought) to waive back then throw purchased food at them. If I were going to believe any theory on this, it would be that the bears were trained to "beg" to help drive up revenue and per cap spending.