Animals!

We visited the Toronto Zoo with the kids on boxing day.

I always enjoy my visits to the zoo, but also come away with mixed feelings. This visit was no different.

I should back up and explain that on the way to the zoo, I ran over a squirrel which darted under the car. It was too late to hit the brakes and I felt a small bump as the rear tire ran the little guy over. My eyes immediately darted to the side view mirror and I saw the squirrel on its back twitching as if it was having a grand-mal seizure. I drove on without stopping.

At the zoo we saw a single Sumatran Rhinocerous standing in an indoor enclosure about the size of my living room. In other words, not that big of an enclosure. He simply stood there for the seven minutes that we were there. The floor of the enclosure was cement and the walls were not adorned with anything resembling a natural setting. At some point, the rhino turned his face away from the crowd and seemed to be "mooning" us.

Later, I went to a fast food restaurant at the zoo and ordered a hamburger.

If these animals actually had the capacity to reason, what a cruel, callous bunch of boors human would seem to them. Not only do we trap them to show our appreciation of nature; not only do we cage large and small creatures in solitary (sometimes group) confinement very unlike their natural habitats; but we actually put a restaurant in the middle of this carnival where we proceed to EAT some of their brethren.

We are truly fucked. At some point in the past slavery was acceptable. And for the Romans, sacrificing humans for entertainment was also acceptable. Is it really okay to capture and keep trapped hundreds of animals for a few minutes of my entertainment? I think not. If I truly loved animals and nature, wouldn't it make more sense to go see them in the wild?

There is a great article examining this issue at goodzoos.com A site that promotes itself as "the essential guide to the best zoos, wildlife parks and animal collections on the planet."