Joel Zimmerman, your friendly neighborhood Deadmau5, isn’t known for holding back his opinions on matters that catch his attention. Whether it be within the EDM community or not, he’s bound to speak up. Recently Zimmerman took his Tumblr account, “united we fail“ to deliver an impassioned letter to Canadian aquatic-animal theme park Marineland, located in Niagara Falls. In true Deadmau5 fashion, he delivered his thoughtful message to the theme park with the in-your-face, bluntly sarcastic style that we’ve come to know and love (or hate, for some folks) from the artist.
Ever since the release of Blackfish, a documentary that focuses on the countless issues that come with retaining big marine animals in captivity (namely Orca whales), Marineland Canada has been besieged by constant criticism and protest. The theme park is now the center of investigations regarding animal abuse and neglect, and now Zimmerman is taking part by writing a letter expressing his concerns for the animals and the welfare standards of Marineland’s theme park. It is still unclear as to what exactly prompted Deadmau5 to speak out.
His letter implored that Marineland should:
“just get rid of the animals… (not that kinda chainsaw and plastic tarp ‘get rid of’) but like, you know, find an amicable solution to getting rid of the animals so that PETA and all the niagara falls crusaders will get off your lawn with their fuckin signs n shit.”
He then took it to the next step with attempts at persuasion by telling the theme park:
“even if it pissed you off because you lost an asset or whatever, or potential profit from ‘tourists’ n shit… look at what you have to gain? Youd win the entire EVERYTHING if you released a statement promising the closure of your animal pens and aquariums. That ‘good guy’ PR would reach worldwide fuckin acclaim…. shit, even SeaWrold (who arent any fucking better by a longshot) would be like… ‘OH SNAP’ and probably forcing them into action. You’d be a fuckin world hero… and it would probably cost you the x million dollars of investments you had to spring out on fucking whales n shit and upkeep (cant imagine it would be cheap).”
Despite the serious undertone regarding of entire subject matter, Zimmerman’s wry personality comes out frequently, and readers can’t help but chuckle at some of the commentary. In an attempt to further demonstrate why releasing the animals is the best move for the theme park, he reasons to them:
“youre STILL sitting on a fucking shitload of acreage thats a theme park…. with rides and shit. WHO THE FUCK DOESNT GO TO THEMEPARKS DUMBASS? Magic mountain doesnt have 1/2 dead wales n half dead deer… do i spend a buck or 300 every year to go there? FUCK YES.”
Zimmerman then concluded his letter to Marineland by reminding them that the issue of animal cruelty is both a moral and business issue, and so the park should do the morally just thing. He leaves no room for ambiguity, and perhaps his tactics are a bit brash but he certainly gets the point across:
“stop being a fucking bunch of morons and just do the right thing. what are you fucking broke? no. It’s a brilliant idea / long game and a hell of an investment…. but youll make youre return… receive worldwide attention for your acts of valor… even tho you needed to be pressured into it anyway, and my personal facebook timeline wont be full of shit about how shitty you are. thats it. believe me, if i had the kind of money you’d want to buy your shit operation out, i’d do it myself in a heartbeat… and im probably not far off, so you might wanna hop on this shit.”
Deadmau5 later took to Twitter to jokingly make suggestive jabs at theme park
ive played enough rollercoaster tycooon…. i know wtf im doin.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) October 14, 2014
goal: round up investors + crowdsourcing, buy marineland. deal with making it an animal free park, split profits w/ investors. — deadmau5 (@deadmau5) October 14, 2014
Although Zimmerman decided to go about addressing this issue of animal cruelty in a boisterous manner, his attempt to try and dissuade Marineland from staying a theme park and continue to mistreatment of their captive animals is commendable. The greater message behind his letter is extremely clear and correct despite the fact that it’s being clouded with crude words and phrases. No one can blame Zimmerman for wanting to stand up to help out animals, he just decided to do it in his class Deadmau5 fashion.
plot twist: sell it to disney after.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) October 14, 2014
Read Deadmau5’s full letter to MarineLand here.