Bob Hunter @ strictly personal @ TOOK THE family on a rain-slicked Sunday down to the Vancouver Aquarium, With trepida- tion. 1 hadn't been there in ages. Maybe it was reading Rex Weyler's Song of the Whale that rekindled some old feeling. 1 suspected it would be bad. But then again ('d read that a new whale pool had been install- ed. So it just might be that the whales weren't having to endure quite such a nightinare as they had to in the old days when Skana and Hyak lived in what was, for them, a bathtub. I thought, also, that maybe my feelings about animals in captivi- ty might have mellowed. As it turned out, they haven’t. Froin the parking lot, we hur- ried through that abominable lit- tle prison camp they call the Stanley Park Zoo, past the sulky monkeys picking listlessly at their belly buttons. Of course, it is winter and in the cold blue light, with conden- sation on the glass and spray lashing the sidewalk, who could expect animals from the tropics to look happy? Yet the parallel with the slave trade in its time remains perfectly valid. I have plenty of quibbles with the animal rights people—for in- stance, a major disagreement: I eat meat. But that doesn’t mean I can’t see for myself that most animals in captivity show every sign of depression and_ stir- craziness. The fact is, there are monkeys who have been taught sign lan- | guage and who have succeeded in teaching their own offspring how to do it. Their vocabularies in- clude more than a thousand word signs. You can carry on a con- versation with them! I look at these miserable little i guys in the cages at Stanley Park and I know I am looking at something that future generations will look back on with loathing, proof of the barbarism of our age, if any more proof was need- Anyway, on to the aquarium. And down, in the rain, to see the new whale pool. Well, yes, it is quite a bit big- ger, better designed, and nice to look at above the water. Below it is still a bathtub. lam shocked, moved almost to tears, by the sight of Hyak. His dorsal fin, which. should be stick- ing straight up in the air like a mighty sword held aloft, is bent over completely, like a folded chair. That whale is crippled! J have seen plenty of Orcas in the open water, and, believe me, their dorsals are call and firm. The fact that Hyak's flops over sideways is proof positive that the whale is suffering, like an old man bent over double fram years of pacing in circles in’ a pen, dragging a ball and chain. Hyak’s misery was likewise ev- ident from the way he hung in a far corner of the pool, basically growling at Finna, the young feelandic Orea who was captured and brought here, along with Bjossa, the young female, to teplace Skana when she died. Poor Hyak. What a life. First, he was forced to live in captivity with a bigger, older, dominant female. Skana made his life miserable enough. How would you like to spend most of your life, fellas, sharing a cell with a female who might be your pushy aunt? Now that Skana is dead, Hyak finds himself having to contend with an aggressive young stud for the companionship of a beautiful young wench. Moreover, dorsal sticks straight up! I don’t call that a joke. I call that living hell for Hyak. Not only has Hyak’s life in the | wild been snatched from him, his § whole pattern of sexual activity, i which free whales enjoy in an almost utopian fashion, has been denied. And in the end, aquarium czar § Murray Newman will have Hyak’s body sent to a dog food plant, where it will be chopped up and carried in little tin cans to various households throughout B.C., without anyoue knowing their hounds are chomping on the last of that magnificent whale we saw on all those postcards. That was Skana’s fate, | know | for a fact. Shortly after she died in the aquarium bathtub, an anonymous woman phoned me and offered me a section of Skana's spine. I took it. It was an Orca spine, all right. It was still almost soft and moist. St had been sliced off and sav- | ed during the cutting-up process. How many other pieces there are around, | don’t know. Fm sure the aquariurn’s board | of directors was pleased that the bottom line on Skana was a che- que from a dogfood manufactur- er. Efficiency, eh? As for me, | was disgusted when | found out. j { am just as disgusted now. At least they could have returned her to the sea, or cremated her. But dog food? The kids didn't understand why Daddy and Mommy wanted to leave the whale pool so quick- ly. We had barely got there. It was hard to explain, there in the rain, about shame and guilt by association. When you need legal assistance... - Bradbrooke Grawford & Green BARRISTERS & SOLICITORS 980-8571 GERALD A. GREEN W. HOWARD BRADSROOKE DEBRA VAN GINKEL J. 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