If I understand your question correctly, nothing prevents a person who has possession of an animal from doing their utmost on their own to adhere to the best scientific standards and so on and to do whatever is in their power to take care of the animal.
If I'm reading between the lines of your question, I think the question is, what can governments do, and what types of laws are there that apply to these types of situations?
In the area of animal welfare, as Senator Sinclair hinted at in his testimony, there is overlapping federal criminal jurisdiction and provincial jurisdiction over animal welfare, so there are laws in all the provinces, including, obviously, Ontario and British Columbia, which are the two provinces that have facilities that house cetaceans, that are general animal welfare legislation.
In much the same way that provinces have legislation for the protection of the welfare of children, these provinces have jurisdiction and they have legislation over the protection of the welfare of animals as well. But again, just because a matter might be approached through a provincial lens doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't federal jurisdiction in the area of criminal law, so there are, at present, offences in the Criminal Code that prohibit causing unnecessary pain, injury or suffering to an animal. Those would apply to pretty much any animal, so they're already in place, but those offences require proof that a particular animal was made to suffer pain or injury through the actions of individuals.