METRO NEWS Animal rights groups seek intervention in Vancouver Aquarium court case. The Vancouver Aquarium launched a legal challenge against the park board's cetacean ban in June. Two animal rights groups are seeking the courts’ permission to intervene in the Vancouver Aquarium’s bid to overturn the park board’s ban on keeping cetaceans in captivity. Animal Justice and Zoocheck filed a joint intervention application to the B.C. Supreme Court this week. The two organizations say the aquarium’s legal argument that confining animals in captivity constitutes a form of expression could make it harder to protect animals. "They are acutally saying that confining animals in tiny tanks is a charter right and we’re troubled by this," said Camille Labchuk, lawyer and executive director of Animal Justice. "If it’s a Charter right to confine animals ... this would be a pretty serious barrier for animal advocates and animal lawyers getting any laws whatsoever protecting animals from confinement." Animal Justice and Zoocheck's argument rests on the idea that capturing and confining animals is violent and therefore should not be considered a form of expression. The Vancouver Aquarium declined Metro's request for comment, saying the matter is before the courts. In its petition to the court, the aquarium states: "Through its cetacean program, the Vancouver Aquarium expresses one viewpoint in a many-sided public – and now political – debate about the ethics of keeping cetaceans in captivity. The Vancouver Aquarium’s view is one aimed at demonstrating the capacity of human beings to care for captive, non-releasable cetaceans in an ethical manner, and in a manner that promotes the conservation of wild populations and the marine environment." The aquarium also argues that banning the captivity of cetaceans at their facility in Stanley Park severely impacts staff’s ability to advance skills needed for rescuing and rehabilitating whales in the wild. Cetacean captivity has been a hot button topic in Vancouver for years, and after the sudden deaths of the two remaining belugas at the aquarium last fall, the park board voted 6-1 to ban cetacean captivity. "The writing is on the wall for the animal captivity industry," said Labchuck. "Circuses, aquariums, zoos, they are losing attendance, they are losing public support and they are losing support from our politicians as well." The Vancouver Aquarium launched a legal challenge to the ban in June. The aquarium is currently home to two cetaceans – Helen, a Pacific white-sided dolphin and Chester, a false killer whale. Both came to the aquarium as rescue animals. Daisy, a harbour porpoise, died from pulmonary disease in June, marking the fourth cetacean to die at the aquarium in 10 months. Two belugas at the aquarium, Aurora and Qila, died suddenly from an unknown toxin in November, re-igniting public debate on whether cetaceans should be kept in captivity