on friday my parents, myself, and aren took my two and a half year old nephew to the zoo. simon loves, love, LOVES the zoo and is crazy about animals - he can identify so many animals when you show him pictures and able to make the sound they make, and is so curious to learn more about them. he's kinda awesome that way. and most of simon's love and awareness of animals have come from aren, his family, and his teachers teaching him about animals and him seeing them in person (i.e., toby, his dad's dogs, my parents cats, the zoo).
as someone who loves animals and think they all should be treated as equals, as a vegan and someone who wants to reduce and end all animal suffering, i hate zoos and the caging and enclosing of animals. however, as someone who loves animals, i also feel strongly connected to them. i think this is crucial in others starting to feel how i feel, and educating themselves on the unfair treatment upon a lot of animals - they need to feel connected to them to care, and spending time with them and experiencing them helps to build this connectivity. and so, i'm at an impasse.
i haven't been to the zoo in a while, and i honestly do not like to go. and to add to that, zoos and sanctuaries are completely different to me. sanctuaries house 100% rescued wildlife. for example, the sanctuary we went to in alaska had wildlife that were all rescues - some they were holding through the winter to be released in the spring, others were permanent residents (those who were orphaned or injured). their 'enclosures', if i can even call them that, were HUGE - like, they had acres upon acres of tons of space for the animals to meander about. they were hardly comparable to then tiny zoo enclosures. there also were only a few people there when we went as opposed to thousands of screaming children banging on the glass and yelling at the animals at the zoo. so, to me at least, these two aren't comparable.
the animals at the zoo break my heart - i could've easily cried a couple times friday when we were there. the cages for some of these animals were hardly sufficient for their size. sure, some of these animals are rescues, but some of them aren't - some of them are kidnapped and taken to zoos to our pleasure and enjoyment. screaming and growling children swarm their cages banging on the glass, pulling on nets - if i was one of those animals i'd just be so depressed. and animals aren't stupid, people - they feel emotion, they feel stress and anger, they feel what we feel. but, again, i'm at an impasse.
zoos and sanctuaries are pretty much that people can see wildlife in person. and to see, is to believe. seeing grows awareness. seeing rids yourself of some ignorance surrounding wildlife. reading the placards about a certain animal being endangered. and what we can do to help them educates us. seeing them, feeling them, raising our awareness, and building our education helps people feel connected and feeling connected makes us give a damn about them. it makes us feel sad for them, it makes us want to help. for example, almost 60% of vegans became vegan after either a) watching videos of a factory farm and slaughterhouse, or b) growing a friendship with a typical farm animal (ex., more and more people are getting pigs as pets and they no longer eat pork or bacon). i started caring more about wildlife when i volunteered at wildlife rescue - it made me feel connected in a way that i wouldn't if i hadn't had that experience. my mom volunteered and did something with gorillas at the dallas zoo when i was little, and she grew to care about them as a species. marine biologists, zoo keepers, zoologists, veterinarians, etc. care GREATLY for the animals they tend to - they treat them as equals, as friends, as children.
No comments:
Post a Comment