03/22/2023
It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Kiska, the last captive orca in Canada, has died from a bacterial infection after living in captivity for over 43 years. This news is heartbreaking to everyone who has spent years advocating for her freedom and release, including Humane Canada.
Kiska, who was approximately 47 years old, had been at Marineland since she was captured in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1979. For the last 12 years of her life, she was in captivity alone, in direct opposition to her social instinct.
While both Ontario and Canada banned the captivity of orcas, and then whales and dolphins, Kiska was sadly “grandfathered” in. This means that because she was in captivity prior to the bill becoming law, she was legally allowed to remain in captivity.
We struggle deeply with the knowledge that she spent so much of her life in captivity and without the love and companionship she desired and deserved. Orca’s are complex, intelligent animals who feel emotions deeply and it saddens us immensely to know she did not feel the joy of life outside captivity in her final days.
Her passing marks the end of all orca captivity in Canada, meaning that no other orca will suffer the same fate in our country again.
