CHICAGO — Following the weekend death of a young beluga whale, PETA is calling on Chicago's Shedd Aquarium to stop keeping whales and other sea animals in captivity.
The whale, named "Miki," died at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, where he had been brought for a "beluga whale breeding consortium," according to the Shedd, which said the breeding program allows aquariums to do research on the "near threatened" creatures that "would be difficult or impossible to do in the wild."
But animal rights group PETA said aquariums are not helping wild beluga populations by keeping any animal in a tank. Rachel Mathews, PETA's associate director of captive animal law enforcement, issued a scathing statement on Miki's death Monday:
"If the Shedd Aquarium had truly cared about or respected this young beluga one bit, he never would have been bred into a life of captivity and deprivation," Mathews said. "Trapping an endangered animal inside a concrete box does nothing for belugas in the wild. At a time when SeaWorld has ended its orca-breeding program and the National Aquarium is planning to move the dolphins there to a sanctuary, PETA is calling on the Shedd Aquarium to stop talking about mourning, love, and loss and actually do something—stop warehousing animals and start retiring them to coastal sanctuaries."
Miki had been brought to Mystic Aquarium before, Shedd representatives said, and the Connecticut site has often been a destination for Shedd's whales and dolphins.
“Miki was beloved," Dr. Bill Van Bonn, vice president of animal health for Shedd, said in a statement. "We would do anything and everything we could for his welfare— and that of every animal at Shedd or in our colleague organizations. The loss of any life is heartbreaking. Miki will be especially missed."
During his time at Shedd, Miki had learned to imitate dolphins and "learned to porpoise himself out of the water almost as high and as gracefully as they do," said Maris Muzzy, an aquarium manager who worked with the whale for eight years, according to the announcement.
"We are so grateful for what we learned by working with him and to be able to teach millions of people about him who would otherwise never be able to see these animals in the wild,” Muzzy added.
PETA isn't the only animal rights group that has criticized the Shedd. The group In Defense of Animals slammed the aquarium for its tanks, specifically the ones used to house belugas, last month. They also questioned the practice of moving whales and dolphins to various aquariums.
"Shedd is part of a national syndicate trading whales and dolphins," the group said in a statement. "Shedd regularly removes these cetaceans from their companions as if they were objects in a museum. Beluga Naluark was captured from the wild in 1992, and has been moved between eight different tanks since then - three of the moves were to and from Shedd Aquarium. ... Belugas need to maintain close social bonds that are vital to their welfare, but these needs are tragically overridden when they are shipped from one aquarium to another."
The Shedd, however, has long defended its whale and dolphin policies, saying the research they're able to do on these creatures "can lead to lifesaving innovations and environmental policies" that protect them.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
