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Dear Mr. Doyon, While on a business trip to Montreal several months ago I visited your delightful aquarium. The fish and animals are, for the most part, obviously well cared for. I do however, have one major concern that haunts me to this day. At the foot of your stairs you have an open area with lots of greenery and fresh running water and ponds where turtles, snakes, iguanas, water dragons and the biggest most beautiful green, speckled bull frogs I have ever seen, have their home. While their freedom and mobility is being denied it could be a much worse existence for them. What concerns me is that it is open up to the second floor and there are hundreds and maybe thousands of coins covering the ground. It is obvious that some people throw coins for "good luck" or as a contribution to the aquarium, but it is also apparent that unconscious and/or malicious people are throwing coins with the intent of hitting the creatures living below. This happened twice while I was there. Once the mother of two boys was present. This morning I spoke with Mr. Deland, the aquarium manager, who said there is in an intention to build a Plexiglass bank so that people would be deterred from tossing the coins. This will stop some of it, but the animals will still not be protected from the cruelty of those who throw the coins, not as a donation, but because they can't let another living creature alone without assaulting it in some way. As you put extra thick doubled glass to shield the fish from those who knock loudly, so you must put a covering of protection over your frogs, iguanas and turtles. I am still sickened by the image of those bullfrogs, wide-eyed and innocent being hit on the head with quarters. Please imagine, if you will, being in your living room by an open window. Every now and then a neighbor hurls a rock in. It's just infrequent enough so that you never know when it will happen, but it happens just often enough so that you can never forget that it might happen any time. No animal in captivity should be forced to live with that kind of physical and psychic violence. I am, at this time, writing to you alone and not copying it to the Montreal animal rights groups and newspapers. This is something I do wish to avoid. Please let me hear from you about any possible remedies to this problem. I know you have their best interests at heart and I thank you for any relief you can give to me from my nightmares about the poor frogs, but mostly I hope you can act immediately to give them the peace of mind that they deserve. Most sincerely, Nikki Craft, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54902, USA [The Montreal Aquarium closed in 1991 due to lack of funding. Now looking back on it i can realize they knew the animals were being tortured in that area by human visitors, but they wanted the coins visitors threw in. I'm quite sure the little beings in the opened area never were given the protection they deserved for the following four years they remained.~nikki craft 12.01.09]
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A letter I wrote to the Montreal Aquarium in 1987