Kiska is a killer whale who has lived without companions for over a decade at Marineland, a Canadian aquarium in Niagara Falls.
She was captured in Iceland when she was only 3 years old, and has since endured the deaths of all of her young offspring in captivity.A video posted this week by former Marineland trainer-turned-whistleblower Phil Demers
shows Kiska floating listlessly in her pool. The dramatic footage comes after Animal Welfare Services inspectors declared animals at Marineland were in distress due to the aquarium's poor water quality.
Other footage taken by Demers gives an aerial view of the orca's suffering -- her seemingly lifeless body looks so tiny and alone as she floats in her solitary tank.
Marineland was issued
two orders by the Ontario watchdog agency in May 2021 to repair their water systems, but have appealed the order, claiming water quality is unrelated to a series of whale deaths at the facility.
Animal welfare experts are appalled at the conditions of Kiska's captivity.
Dr. Naomi Rose, a scientist with the Animal Welfare Institute, wrote in an Animal Justice media release: "At a minimum, she should have long since been transferred to a facility with other orcas or provided with individuals of another cetacean species as companions. Under no circumstances was allowing her completely solitary state to continue — especially given her practically inert response to it — the appropriate choice."
Camille Labchuk, Executive Director of Animal Justice, says: "She's probably the world's loneliest orca and that's very sad. It's difficult to not feel sympathy for what she's going through."
Tell Marineland to take action to move Kiska to an appropriate, attraction-free home with Whale Sanctuary Project in Nova Scotia!
