Many pro-zoo factions will assert that it is for their own benefit, that out in the wild they would be killed off, and surely, on most of the placards describing their classifications as creatures of earth, more than 95% were listed as endangered because of loss of habitat due to humanity.
But what does this say really, it is merely an analytical explanation of total madness and highly educated stupidity, without any emotion or necessary freak out over the bewildered realization that we are killing all life on Earth and destroying the life support systems of our own ecosystem, that we are ignoring the symbiosis we are all a part of!
This was a truly sad day in my life, similar to visiting Sea World or any park where humanity has imprisoned innocent creatures for our own temporary gratification. Of notable absurdities on this day, though it was all sickening to me, was a young woman who described a majestic eagle as the ugliest thing she had ever seen... so not only was this sad eagle crying out in psychological pain for having its massive wings clipped and being stuck in a cage with no room to fly around, but that some stupid girl should come and judge its appearance?
I wanted to tell her expression was the ugliest thing I had ever witnessed, but I repressed my outrage as so many of us who are witnessing the shallow mentalities of humanity expressing its own self-hatred in a hall of mirrors.
I wonder how is it that the masses of humanity can so carelessly witness these many innocent prisoners living a tortured existence and never once think how that little space is the only world those incarcerated creatures will ever know while alive... they have no privacy, they exist everyday having strange humans pointing fingers at them, humans laughing at them all day, seemingly enjoying their enslavement and pain
None of the humans I witnessed were bothered in the slightest, none felt or saw the animals suffering, saw the sad condition of their fur and skin, the unhappiness and sluggish movement of their behavior and stricken faces.
I, on the other hand, could feel their sorrow and dysfunction, confusion and anger, as if it were screaming out loud, screaming to be heard.
I am very ashamed to be human, for more reasons than a visit to the zoo. We are a very disgusting and arrogant species in many ways, regardless of our egocentric assertions of brilliance and self destructive technologies of supposed achievement.
It would seem the main purpose of a zoo at this point would be to educate the public that we are committing global suicide by destroying the fellow members of our symbiotic system, but instead what I witnessed was a huge corporate money-making vehicle that revolved around ticket sales, food sales, and stuffed animals and other store goods, all of which were conveniently placed in precise locations obviously intended to sell, sell, sell to the sugar-addicted masses of kids and their beleaguered parents. If that is only the only way to educate the masses of denial stricken consumers, then perhaps insults are in order.
The one voice of a saddened environmentalists was barely heard at the Panda exhibit, talking of things we may do to help preserve Nature, and the plight of the many wild animals exhibited at the San Diego Zoo. As Al Gore recently released in his brilliant movie, reality and our human systems of cause and effect are certainly "An Inconvenient Truth" to witness, talk about, or promote in any way.
Because of this we are a species caught in a black hole of ceaseless desires for more power, sex, and violence, the basic necessities are even difficult to come by, the cost of living so high most of us are slaves of one kind or another, whether bound by mounting bills and laws, or in love and attached to one thing or another...There is very little place for caring about animals or the plight of those incarcerated creatures held captive within our many zoos.
*****
If you appreciated this story, you may also appreciate, The Grave Endangerment Of Western Gorillas [1].
