A few months ago, a few of us decided to head off to JHB zoo. Now I had never been to a zoo and judging from the expression on my mothers face when I told her I was going, I knew exactly why. We arrived and I was instantly disturbed. Nothing worse than seeing African Elephants with a chain around their ankles and a brown bear with a plastic bottle in its mouth. When we got to the chimps I watched the interaction between the people watching and the chimps. When the chimps clapped, the people clapped. When the chimps pointed to a person, they would do something stupid or lift up the food they were holding. I watched in a rage and then it occurred to me, who exactly was teasing who, who actually were the performing animals?
Needless to say I find zoos repulsive and abusive to animals. Watching the polar bear display the behaviour that is typical of animals in captivity broke my heart even further, especially because I have seen these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat, as with most of the animals in the zoo.
Now this is not just another of my random ramblings. Last night I'm sure many of you saw the animal footage on Carte Blanche. Few things seem to move me in any way these days but the shots of the leopard and baby baboon left me speechless and covered in goosies. As I sit here now thinking about it, I am once again covered in goosies. The female baboon had tried to kill the leopard’s young and to save its baby’s life, the leopard killed the baboon. But the baboon had the tiniest of babies and the leopard then spent the rest of the night caring for this tiny creature. It was something, to me, that represented the true meaning of life. Unfortunately the baby died due to the cold but the leopard did its best to care for it.
People kill, rape and steal. They destroy the lives of other people and even children. More often than not these acts are not committed as a means to survive (no person needs to rape another individual or child to get food) but for some sick pleasure. In the wild, all actions are about survival. They say people are different from animals because they have the ability to reason, the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
I wonder who the real animals are.
Remain Infinitely Cute
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3 comments:
Cuteness I am a big fan of the Joburg Zoo. They do some great work there, research which can save the lives of animals in the wild, along with breeding programs and animal rehabilitation. They are constantly upgrading the size and habitat of their enclosures, and I have donated equipment and cash for several enclosures. But all zoos need money, and unfortunately they do not have enough to make every enclosure a utopia. And yes you are right, some animals go crazy being captive. It is a sad state when we realise that one day the only wild creatures will be preserved in zoos, and therefore I would much rather them perfect their techniques now, than botch it up when it really counts.
As for man being an animal, you just have to watch a Mad Max movie to say "there but for the grace of God go I".
i guess you do have to take the good with the bad, and one does have to learn how to do things... My hatred for Zoos is due to people's attitude towards the animals and lack of respect. its more a comment on human behaviour than anything else, if thats makes any sense at all.
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