Man or Beast?

Zoos are the epitome of man's cruelty and arrogance.

What gives us the right to imprison creatures that we do not understand, and do not care about except to subjugate? We enclose little frogs in glass cases because they fascinate us, we capture big cats to control them, we cage birds because we cannot fly behind them to observe them. We keep specimens away from their own kind, in artificial habitats , with enforced diets, so that our children will be educated, or entertained. And then we have the audacity to pat ourselves on the back for providing food and shelter. The gall! The vanity! And this is us - the species which has allowed children to starve to death is more areas of the world than our conscience should bear.

I cannot see a worse crime against a living creature than the creation of the zoological parks of the world. Say the giraffes were the upper species in another dimension. What if they tore us from our homes and had us immured in a glass home in the prairies? Would we enjoy the tapping on the glass while we had a meal? We cannot even tolerate telemarketers at mealtime!!

We all agree life is more than just breathing and eating. So why do we not grant other species of the planet the courtesy of letting them have the life we dream for ourselves? It is unassailable certitude that we are NOT doing them a favor by keeping them fed in a 7 by 7 enclosure. The fact that we have increased the number of an endangered species by breeding them in captivity is not a claim of success. It is statement on how selfish man is. First we take away everything that the species has to live for - its home, its food, and most importantly, its freedom. Then we pat ourselves our back when they manage to survive our prodding and our prying, and our 'learning'. Can you imagine being one of the few 'protected' humans with a superior species?

Each animal is special and individual -not just a representation of the whole. We point out a cheetah so happily as if seeing one, even in such grotesquely distorted circumstances, is having seeing all there is to see of all cheetahs! As if our perverted delight makes it all OK to have the animal removed from its family. In Kenya, they accept the brutal killing of a 'few lions' because the population is bouncing back. Well by that logic all human murders are quite alright, maybe necessary, considering the ridiculous way we breed!

I am sorry Steve Erwin is dead - but frankly, I find it very difficult understand how we can hero worship someone who spent his time forcing open (or shut, as the case may be) some poor crocodile's mouth, or jump in their homes for some nice camera shots. I have swum with those gorgeous rays; long before they were in the news as potential killers. It is an experience I will treasure all my life. What I came out with was a new respect for creatures that are much more graceful than us, and more gracious than we can ever be. You cannot be with them and then want to nudge, provoke, or bother them. Like so many other earth's creatures they share their habitat with us very benignly. Why would you want to break though their personal space? There must be reason God gave even those gentle beings a sharp barb.

What we call the 'wild' creatures live in their own respective worlds. They have not tried to capture, kill , outbreed, or understand us. Let us at least mirror their civility and generosity.