We’re going to go to the zoo this afternoon, and I’m really looking forward to it. I hope to get a nice, schmaltzy Robert Fulghumy blog out of it after the fact, but for now, let me share some of my thoughts about zoos.
Of course, that comes down to my thoughts about animals. I consider myself an animal lover although maybe animal liker would be more accurate. I eat meat and I wear leather, so I can’t say I’m overly sentimental. I have worked on farms and killed my own meat.
I don’t, at the moment, own any animals except for some fish in a tank in the kid’s bedroom but really, as any animal owner will vocally verify, that doesn’t count. I don’t want to own a dog as long as we live in the city, because I don’t want to follow him around picking up poop. I like dogs, but not that much. That’s why I say animal liker and not animal lover.
So, I understand those people who say that zoos are just prisons for animals and by visiting them and gawking at the animals, who have thoughts and emotions and a right to privacy of their own, we are enabling an immoral institution and perpetuating the evil of animal oppression. But I love watching the penguins, and the otters as they dive into the water and play. I love watching the monkeys interreact with each other because they are so human like. I love watching the big cats as they move, so sleek and graceful. I love seeing the mountain goats, they are probably my favorite at the Prague zoo, because they have a big, rocky hillside which is just perfect for them.
I like seeing animals in an environment where they look natural. The ones that depress me, specifically at Prague zoo, are the elephants and the polar bears. The elephants live on a slab of cold concrete, with no green grass, no trees or bushes in their enclosure at all. The polar bear seems to be very confused by that big, white plastic cube which I guess is supposed to look like ice, at least for the human visitors.
I think zoos should limit themselves to fewer animals, those that they can give a really nice environment, and everybody would be happier.
My kids, for the most part, like riding on the train and eating hot dogs and ice cream.
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I loved the circus, I love seeing the animals in the zoos and Sea World, etc. But I have come to realize how selfish I am to pay to see animals forced to live in conditions which are documented to be anywhere from unnatural, uncomfortable and confining, to down right inhumane and abusive. I feel that these days with video, DVD’s, life TV programs from land and under the sea that it is not necessary to take wild animals captive and subject them to what is ‘torture’ to them, if not to us. People, kids, can learn much more from modern media presentations of animals in their natural habitat than seeing them in a confined cage-like setting. ….just my opinion….