Just say NO to EXPANSION
NO MORE WHALE POOL$
NO MORE WHALE$
Monday NIght Nov. 27
PARK BOARD MEETING
@ 5pm - latecomers OK
Hastings Community Centre
3096 East Hastings Avenue
SPEAK OUT FOR THE WHALES!
CALL the Park Board offices --
Tel: 604-257-8451 and SIGN UP
to speak as a delegation
BEFORE NOON MONDAY
To send an e-mail to the Park Board
visit www.nomorewhales.ca
Whose Aquarium poll do you trust? The Aquarium's?
Should we imprison a whale or dolphin?
Should we care for an injured whale or dolphin?
The above two questions are the same question.
10% Yes 90% No
90% Yes 10% No
The Vancouver Aquarium purchases its dolphins from Aquariums in Japan. The Japanese Aquariums purchase the dolphins from Japanese drive fisheries that every year chase offshore pods of dolphins into a bay, then slaughter hundreds of adults for food until the entire bay runs red with blood, and sell the youngsters to the Aquariums. As the young dolphins are captured, they are usually injured. The Japanese Aquariums confine the dolphins for public display, and later they sell some of those formerly injured dolphins to be confined and publicly displayed in Vancouver.
Do you approve? Not if you're asked the first question. A pollster who wants to hear you say "yes" will ask the second question. The Vancouver Aquarium hired a public relations firm Kirk & Co., at an approximate cost of $300,000, and the public relations firm hired a polling firm Synovate to ask the second question and get the purchased "yes" response.
The poll found that more than 90 per cent agree the aquarium should be allowed to bring in a new whale or dolphin from another facility for rehabilitation, with the intention of safely releasing it back into the wild. And 75 per cent agreed that the aquarium should be allowed to bring in a new whale or dolphin "if it was injured or otherwise in distress at any time in the past and requires permanent human care to survive." -- Globe and Mail, November 9, 2006.
The Aquarium has never released a dolphin to the wild, and has never rehabilitated a dolphin from another aquarium. Ask a nonsense question -- get a nonsense answer. The Vancouver Aquarium is planning to do two separate things, (a) "revitalize" by renovating some of its older buildings, and (b) "expand" by constructing more whale pools and doubling the number of captive whales (initially, with more to come later). Nobody minds the first, and most decent people oppose the second. It is only for the new whale pools that the Aquarium needs to take 50% more land in Stanley Park.
CKNW radio host Cameron Bell got it right --
"If you believe that 89% of all the people support expansion, you would be misled. It’s probably true that 89% of the public the aquarium talked to, supported the revitalization proposal. The people of Vancouver don’t mind looking after distressed whales, but strong support for a return to a marine mammal circus, as some people called it, is in the 30s and 40s (percent), in the city of Vancouver. If you go further afield you can get more support, so I think it adds up to this: the Vancouver Aquarium wants to launch a highball construction of $80 million dollars - while we are trying to build the Olympics - to create new whale pools, which they will fill with captive-born whales, whales ten years old or more….The fact is that people in Vancouver prize the park over the aquarium and are suspicious of the expansion plans. A figure of 89% support of people is just a fish tale, and it’s smelling like an older one. Despite the enthusiastic tactics of John Nightingale, the case is far from made and the books are being cooked. The numbers in some cases are actually being mis-represented." -- On air, November 12, 2006.
Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Allan De Genova got it right --
"I'm just not comfortable with the way the consultation is going down," said De Genova, who historically supports the aquarium. ... "My biggest concern with the consultation process is the minimum community involvement. I want to see a true consultation, not some glossy brochure," said De Genova, a realtor. "It's like they're doing a pre-sale the same way I do when I'm selling a condo, and I can tell you, you can't sell to a salesman." De Genova said he would be comfortable putting the decision off until next spring if necessary. "I just don't want to respond with some knee-jerk reaction," he said. -- Vancouver Courier, September 9, 2006.
"This is way too slick for me." -- Commissioner Allan DeGenova Vancouver Courier, September 13, 2006.
NO WHALES IN CAPTIVITY www.nowhalesincaptivity.org
Telephone (604) 736-9514