Marineland Canada is one of Ontario’s most popular tourist attractions. Until Phil Demers, a Marineland senior trainer, went public (via the Toronto Star) with how Marineland treats its animals, no one really knew about the horrific conditions in which those animals live and die. You can find the Star’s extensive investigation series into what goes on behind-the-scenes at Marineland here.
In response to Demer’s actions, Marineland and its owner, John Holer, fired and sued Christine Santos, who happens to be Demers’ girlfriend. And now Demers has been sued as well, AND he has been threatened with additional legal action as well. Demers and Santos now face crippling legal bills, just to defend themselves, and financial ruin if they can’t muster a legal defense.
What can you do to help?
1. Please make a donation of any amount to Phil and Christine’s Legal Defense fund on Indiegogo. Even a donation of $5 or $10 – will help. If you can afford more, fantastic! And we are grateful for any amount you can give, large or small. The Indiegogo campaign has just two weeks to run, and we need to blast through the fund-raising target of $25,000, and go as high as possible, to show Marineland that it can’t get away with using lawsuits to attempt to punish and bankrupt whistleblowers. Click here to donate – the site is easy to use, please contact us if you have any questions or send an email to info@finsandfluke.org.
2. After you’ve donated, please change your Facebook and/or Twitter profile picture to the shot of Phil and Smooshi, the walrus whose welfare motivated Phil to speak out about Marineland. Then consider updating your Facebook status to: “I’ve just changed my profile picture to show I made a donation to help fight for the animals at Marineland, and to protect marine park whistleblowers. If you would like to take a stand, too, find out more here,” and include a link to the donation site. You have permission to use the photo in this article.
3. Please help us spread the word on Twitter. Here are some sample tweets you can copy & paste:
Pls take a stand 4 #marinepark #animals & against #whistleblower intimidation by @MarinelandCan #Smooshi #Kiska http://www.indiegogo.com/Marinelandabuse
@MarinelandCan intimating #Whistleblowers – take a stand & donate to help #Animals & #Smooshi & #Kiska http://www.indiegogo.com/Marinelandabuse
I donated to #Whisteblowers intimated by @MarinelandCan to save #animals & #Smooshi – you can too here: http://www.indiegogo.com/Marinelandabuse
Help #Whistleblowers & #Smooshi by donating to #Whistleblowers who take a stand against @MarinelandCan here: http://www.indiegogo.com/Marinelandabuse
4. Spread the word on any other social networks you use including Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr etc.
5. Finally, if you have any legal connections, or know of any Ontario lawyers who might consider taking Demers’ case on pro bono or at a reduced rate, please private message us or email info@finsandfluke.org
[...] income, Santos was dismissed and now faces a million dollar lawsuit by Marineland. (Please go to Fins and Fluke for some-more information on this box and to find out what we can do to help). But she was [...]