What's New At The Zoo

What's New At The Zoo?

Prominent in the news these days is Namibia's gift of 146 of its indigenous animals to Cuba for its zoos. Most animal advocates are strongly opposed or at the very least ambivalent about zoos. It's hard to justify confining a wild animal to a small space and unnatural food for the rest of its life—all for the entertainment and curiosity of the general public. But that is what's going on, and starting in October those hapless Namibian animals will begin to arrive at Cuba's zoos.

Maybe justice and fairness are human ideas not understood by animals, but animals nevertheless deserve justice and fair treatment. I maintain that zoo animals deprived of their natural habitat and denied the opportunity to live their lives without human interference are being treated unfairly and unjustly.

I've heard all the tired old rationalizations about biblically ordained "dominion" over animals and how animals, lacking a sense of self, do not deserve humane treatment. Well, "dominion" talk is clap trap. We can see them suffer, we can hear them cry, and we can observe the empty eyes of a caged chimp that has already tried and failed thousands of times to enjoy the grass and trees he can see from behind his bars.

Ideas like "dominion," come from the writings of men, and certainly not from the mind of God. And the men who promoted those ideas did so for their own reasons, to the detriment of the animals. Where does anyone get off interfering in the normal life activities of an animal? Doing that is detestable speciesism.

Oh, and don't bring up that I treated my house for an attack of Chinese ants last year. That's no different from a bird fighting off another to protect its nestlings—it's a natural behavior to protect ones home and family. Also I admit I keep several dogs and cats in my house, but that's not equivalent to a zoo's jailing them forever and putting them on display. My dogs and cats enjoy our home as much as I do. This house, in which I sit writing, is their natural habitat.

Namibia and Cuba should know better than to uproot animals and send them to zoos. A look at Cuba's zoos should be all it takes to convince you it is wrong. The only zoo in Cuba with possibly enough support is the National Zoo in Havana's far flung outskirts. With the exception of a cell block of iron cages for smaller animals, the larger land animals are in huge fields simulating their natural habitat. Visitors ride through in protected vans (sort of like Lion Country Safari). But "simulating" is the key word here. It's not the same thing, and you can be sure the animals know it.

The Havana Zoo is much worse, and it isn't well maintained. Candy wrappers and discarded water bottles are everywhere. Ponds are green with slime, and some spaces have no visible drinking water. Here concrete grottos try to simulate natural habitats, but what part of "concrete" is natural?

And don't even mention the hundreds of smaller "attractions" all over the country that hold animals for curious people to look at. In a country without one law requiring humane treatment of animals, I'll leave you to imagine how the captive animals enjoy their lives.

Philosopher Jeremy Bentham got it right about 200 years ago when he stated, The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but Can they suffer?

Les Inglis