Subic marine park to get new whales

[Smadar]

 

http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=2&story_id=44528

 

Subic marine park to get new whales

First posted 02:05pm (Mla time) July 23, 2005
By Blanche Rivera
Inquirer News Service

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DESPITE criticism from animal rights activists, the Ocean Adventure marine park in Subic is planning to acquire more animals to replace the three whales that have died in the past four years.

Ocean Adventure executives revealed the plan two weeks after the park lost its most popular false killer whale, 13-year-old "Hook," whose death from a suspected gastro-intestinal illness has renewed calls from animal rights advocates for the park's closure.

Timothy Desmond, the park's chief executive officer, said Ocean Adventure needed more animals for its expansion program as it expects park visitors to reach one million for the first time this year.

Company officials would not give details concerning the acquisition of new marine mammals.

"We keep this information to ourselves for our own protection and for the welfare of our animals and our staff," president John Corcoran told reporters at the park.

Corcoran cited incidents in the United States in which overzealous

activists conducted operations that were "illegal and dangerous and jeopardized human life and the animals."

"We need more animals, we have plans for acquisition but we can't discuss it," Desmond said.

But he clarified that Ocean Adventure preferred to acquire "doomed" animals as part of its policy to rescue such animals from communities that would otherwise kill them for food.

Only if they cannot find "doomed" animals would the park "go to the wild, do the surveys, do all the ethical things required and get animals for this use. It's a very consistent, very simple philosophy," said Desmond.

"The benefit to the species has to outweigh the cost to the species when you do anything with any animal," he said.

Desmond said he was willing to engage animal rights activists in a discussion of ethical principles, expressing confidence in the park's ethics when it comes to animal acquisition.

"Everybody that deals with animals has an ethical issue. We are conservationists, and our philosophy is expressed in this company... Part of our choice was accepting animals that would not last that long," he said.

"There's nothing like this in the Philippines, and the Philippines needed a resource like Ocean Adventure... We know that what we're doing is right. We're making a difference," Corcoran said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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