I have a lot of opinions, some of them well thought-out and researched, others based completely on knee-jerk reactions to limited information. Here's something that probably falls into the latter camp:
I hate zoos. I like that the IDEA behind zoos is benign - educate the masses (especially children) on the world around them, raise environmental awareness, protect and perpetuate endangered species... All this is good and noble.
I just can't help but feel that there's a better way to go about these goals than to lock up thousands of creatures in cages to be leered at by a rowdy public.
I first started questioning the morality of zoos back in about '03 or '04, while I was living in Bratislava on a church mission. I went to the local zoo there, and the way these animals had been treated... left something to be desired. Some of the smaller animals, like the meerkats, were in these shallow pits with signs that said "Please do not disturb the animals" - which, of course, the hyperactive 19-year-old boys I was with ignored.
The most striking image from that zoo trip, though, was of a sickly lioness, whose coat was ragged and falling out. One of her eyes was completely black. She sat, unresponsive, with a long string of saliva hanging unnoticed from her mouth.
I recognize that most zoos do make an effort to care for their animals, but, even so, I can't help but wonder whether human beings have a RIGHT to put other animals into captivity like this.
My good friend Dashbo asked me once, in correlation to this same idea, whether I thought it would be ethical, if the human race were facing extinction, to take men and women, put them together, and force them to reproduce. I thought about it for a minute, but, ultimately, I decided that it just didn't feel right.
(Yet another reason why I don't ever want to get set up - DATINGZING!)
I have similar misgivings about the practice of keeping pets. Domesticizing animals feels far too much like slavery. Often, animals are domesticated to fulfill a particular ROLE - dogs help hunters track down game, cats keep rodents away, cows provide milk, etc. Honestly, those practices don't bother me too much, provided the animals are treated well. When they're not... well, that's not a subject I feel like I can tackle.
What BOTHERS me, though, are those animals that are kept around solely for companionship and then mistreated. I'm not even talking about animal abuse - there's not even the tiniest sliver of grey in that area. I went for a walk the other day, and I passed a house that kept a couple of dogs in the yard. The dogs, as they do, ran up to the fence and started barking at me, only for the owner to come out onto the porch and yell, angrily, "No barking! Get back here!"
I don't really want to be barked at (no one does), but I just wonder if it's really RIGHT to keep an animal around and demand that it not act like an animal.
Now, I am Christian, and I do believe that God gave man dominion over the whole earth. It's the DEFINITION of that dominion that I struggle with. I don't believe it's right or just to just use up all the resources of the earth - we are meant to CARE for creation, not waste it. The same holds true for animals - just because we CAN lock up a dalmation in a chain-link dog run doesn't mean we should.
But maybe I'm just overthinking things again.
2 comments:
Yeah, last time I went to the zoo, I remember a very despondent looking primate that made me consider the quality of life the animals there may have. Sometimes it is pretty poor. Sometimes the animals look perfectly healthy, active, and happy. I believe that better funding for a larger and more stimulating enclosure is what I would prefer over eliminating zoos.
I like dogs well enough, but have always been a cat owner. My husband says that dogs don't generally look their owners in the eye because they know their masters are dominant, and looking right at them would be a challenge. What? I don't want to raise an animal in a way that would make it scared to look at me.
That said, I just got a kitty a month ago, and believe that her 6 foot cat tree will be arriving today. I might be spoiling her :0
I listened to an interview recently with Julie Benz, a huge animal rights activist, and while I agree with a lot of abroad she said. I'm not ever going to go the that extreme. But she mentioned something I'd never thought about.
She said that one of the main reasons humans were able to progress (easier) was through domesticating dogs, as workers and hunters. But it went so far as that now most dogs and cats are domesticated, to the point where hundreds of species would die off without our support.
We now have an obligation to take care of dogs and cats.
This was her main argument against animal cruelty and neglect. I thought it was interesting.
As for zoos...well I hate zoos that neglect their animals.
But I like 'em!!
They're great places to go on a date!!
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