Where The Wild Things Are

Every child grows up with some sort of stuffed animal, from the ubiquitous Teddy Bear to plush versions of animistic cartoon characters. Animals are a part of our world from birth. As we get older we attach ourselves to a favorite species, the elephant being mine, a representative of gentle intelligence. Some incur love for panthers for their fierceness, penguins for their playfulness, koalas for an innate cuteness. We come to have a connection that drives us to collect figurines, pictures, documentaries, jewelry, and the like. They are movie heroes, product mascots, Halloween costumes. They exist in our world everywhere, but there is one place that they do not belong, and they are there only due to our selfishness and instinctual drive to remain at the top of the evolutionary chain:

Zoos.

The major defense launched by zoological societies is one of protection and viability. Where it is true that there are many programs at zoos nationwide aimed at propagating species, a zoo is not the place for that altruistic activity. Claiming success at having birthed the first giraffe in captivity is no boast. The key word in that sentence is "captivity." A giraffe born at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, for example, is entirely unnatural. A giraffe born in an African wildlife sanctuary, in it's natural habitat, is a step toward the progress of saving a species from extinction, and saving, too, it's natural habitat.

Giraffes do not live in a 500 square foot concrete enclosure voluntarily. How does this type of environment give the animal dignity, happiness, or comfort ? When humans are put into the same type of situation, we call it prison.

When we go to a zoo, we aren't seeing the animals we love in their natural environment, acting in a way that shows their true behavior in nature. Instead we see, through barbed wires, plexiglass, and metal cages, bored, sad, emotionally disconnected inmates lying listless, showing none of the grandeur and beauty they possess in the wild. Baths with rubber garden hoses aren't indicative of a natural habitat. Michelin snow tires aren't indicative of a natural habitat. Animals, all animals, are in some way, hunters, always looking for sustenance. When we simply throw buckets of lettuce and carrots at them three times a day, we take away that most basic thing that makes them animals.

On Friday a Bengal tiger mauled and killed a zookeeper at a Tokyo zoo. Tigers do not naturally hunt humans, but after eleven years in the same small enclosure, instinct takes over when it spies the first moving thing it has seen in its life within paws' reach. What does a zoo do in this circumstance? It secures the animal even more, eliminating any chance for that beast to be its true self.

Animals at zoos are kept in constant torment by the yelling of children, throwing of things, tapping of glass. Are these the lives that these animals would lead in the wild? Hardly so. Even when viewed by people on safari, it is from a distance and with the caveat that your actions could bring you bodily harm. Tourists behave on safari. Tourists fall into a false sense of safety and disregard for nature when they go to the zoo.

The tiger that escaped and mauled three men at the San Diego Zoo not so long ago is a prime example. The uninjured friend who caused the attack has admitted he was high on drugs when he taunted and threw debris at the tiger in his enclosure. Would this same animal have been subjected to this kind of abuse in the wild? And because this tiger fought back when it was attacked, it was killed for it's actions. If we are trying to protect and preserve the majesty of these beasts, then why do we continually subject them to these miserable lifestyles?

We adopt animals at the zoo, we accept that our entry tickets are donations for the animals' upkeep. But are we truly caring for our animals by patronizing these places? Would you feel happy and playful if it were your neighborhood's family pets locked up, separated from each other in cages, have things thrown at them by strangers, given no room to play, and on display for all the world to taunt and point at?

Summer is upon us. Would you rather spend a weekend having fun with the family, enjoying the sun, or would you rather spend it contributing to the humiliation and degradation of imprisoned beasts of beauty? We will most certainly look back upon this time in our history and lament that we ever subjected these children of Mother Nature to such horrid treatment. Be the one who looks back and remembers how you helped change it.