The recent high-profile killing of the silverback gorilla in Cincinnati zoo illustrates the madness of humans. We are locking up animals then punishing them for acting naturally. This killing was a clear example of how we rate a human more precious than any other animal. It follows in the footsteps of the killing of two lions in a Chilean zoo last month when a suicidal man clambered into the big cats’ cage apparently enacting the biblical story of Daniel. He was saved but the lions were shot dead. Humans are more precious and more valuable than animals; that is the moral of the story.
But how far would we go? How many animals are worth the life of one human? As the Times journalist Janice Turner writes:
“Who wouldn’t wipe out a whole ape family to save your child, an entire species even…So we lock up these wild creatures all their lives, then when a human trespasses into their prisons and they dare manifest natural behaviour, we shoot them dead.”
She asked the question as to why zoos still exist in civilised societies. I think the answer is that we are not yet civilised enough although we think we are. Zoos are a legacy of “capricious kings” and “gentleman collectors” from a bygone age.
Zoos have evolved. There are much better than they used to be. The enclosures are much more natural but there are still problems. Back in the old days zoos in the West were sparse places where great mammals sat immobile on concrete slabs developing arthritis and dying at half their usual age. This sort of zoo still exists widely in less well developed countries. We should remember that.
Modern zoos in the West have lavish landscape enclosures. They try and avoid heavy prison bars which, by the way, is perhaps one reason why the 3-year-old boy was able to climb into the gorilla’s enclosure at Cincinnati zoo.
Animal rights activists, and I would have to include myself in this category, believe that animal and human life have equal value. Sometimes people consider such animal rights people to be the “angry fringe”. I don’t think we are. We see it as natural that animals and humans have the same value. It seems to me to be a more normal state of affairs to believe that then to believe that animals have a much lesser value than humans.
Change is coming – slowly, too slowly. If we look at the long history of captive animals whether they are in zoos or circus or other environments, we can see a gradual change towards allowing wild animals to live in their natural habitat. The focus should be on that.
The SeaWorld story is illustrative of a change in public opinion. A recent documentary Blackfish followed the case of a male killer whale (orca), Tilikum, at SeaWorld. He was captured as a baby and living under the dark depressing conditions in which he was placed, this perversion of nature sent him mad until he killed his keeper. Attendance figures at SeaWorld plummeted. The theme park has announced it will no longer breed orcas. Live shows will be phased out. The public’s taste has changed and thank God for that. The whole organisation of SeaWorld should be shut down in my opinion.
Human progress, for what it is worth, is seeing the gradual shift away from accepted and insidious animal cruelty in captive situations and a general shift in public opinion. This is also illustrated by the furore surrounding the killing of Cecil the lion on a “trophy hunt” in Zimbabwe by Dr Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist. There was uproar. It was international and the Internet played a big role in condemning his behaviour and the behaviour of the Zimbabwean authorities. Cecil’s value was higher than that of the dentist for a brief moment.
The photographs that we see of big game hunters with cheesy grins and their rifles, kneeling next to majestic creatures are becoming more and more repulsive to many thinking human beings. This sort of behaviour should have died out with the Raj.
How can you still justify keeping captive polar bears, great apes and tigers who do badly in captivity but who are good for profits?
“It is time for these melancholy mammal museums to die out.”-The words of Janice Turner.
Costa Rica has become the first country to disband all zoos. The animals have been re-homed in conservation parks. Costa Rica is leading the way it seems to me. Why can’t Britain and the USA do this? It is time for a bit more human progress and to value animals more highly.
My sincere thanks to Janice Turner for her ideas and thoughts which chimed with mine. I had to use her work and spread the word.
Not much for me to say about zoos and circuses that I haven’t already.
If they were all closed, we would still have the problem of not being able to return animals to the wild that have been held in captivity 10-20-30 years.
Animal sanctuaries would have to be booted up and under extreme scrutiny. It needs to start now.
We need to start focusing much harder on how to protect animals in the wild and to be able to see them there. That would create harmony between human and animal. Imprisoning them is patently wrong for so many reasons.
I think that top-notched sanctuaries are the best answer. Animals that could never be returned to the wild could be viewed behind plexiglass. The animals would be well cared for and live out their lives without chains or whips.
Yes, Dee, large sanctuaries would be a big improvement. I’d go further. I’d like large reserves to be the norm where wild animals live naturally and where humans can view this natural behavior such as is found in some of the best reserves in Africa. Zoos look like animal prisons for our entertainment to me no matter how hard the owners try and justify them with spin about conservation.
Doubtful that we would ever be able to secure large reserves because of the the way we squeeze out wildlife in the name of progress. There’s just no room.
Neither the US nor the UK have the space or support for those.
But, most very good sanctuaries have free-roaming habitat-like surroundings for those poor souls that can no longer be returned to the wild.
I would be happy just to see sanctuaries expand for that purpose today… not tomorrow…TODAY.
I believe that “entertainment” animal environments are on the decline.
Isn’t it the Boy Scout motto that reads, “Be Prepared”?
I agree, Zoos should go the way of those species that have become extinct because of the human species.
The only species that can save endangered animals are the ones that caused the problem in the first place.
Animals in the wild are subject to poaching. In fact in some countries it’s an everyday event. Armed park rangers can’t stop it. Education doesn’t stop it. Hunts are justified in many areas because one animal overpopulates since the whole prey/predator system is askew.
IMO. There is no hope unless the biggest problem of all is addressed. Human overpopulation. I can’t recall the last time I heard anyone talk about zero population growth. Another branch of the problem is political correctness. Calling out the countries that slaughter endangered animals for exotic meats or medicinal purposes. The use of tradition and cultural rights to deplete what’s left of an animal population. How dare anyone tread on those so called cultural rights. And as someone else pointed out, the US at least is pretty much owned by China.
104 Park Rangers have been killed in Africa protecting wildlife in the Last 20 years, not everyone rates animals as less important than Humans, on 25th October 2015 park ranger Jean Claude Kiza Vunabandi was killed in the line of duty working to save endangered mountain gorillas up in the village of Mabenga. Shot and killed by unknown assailants, the 32-year-old-ranger became the latest fatality in a conservation effort where one of the most endangered species are the park rangers themselves. They are not just doing their jobs, they know the risks and they do it anyway.