Newsweek.com article on zoos

[flvegan]

Tiger, Tiger
Why it’s time to reconsider the whole notion of putting wild animals in zoos.

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Marc Gellman
Special to Newsweek

(in part)

The zoo deal needs to be reconsidered. I just finished watching the Discovery Channel’s “Planet Earth” in all its high-definition spectacularness. It does more to show animals in their natural environment, behaving as they really behave in the wild than any zoo ever could. True, you cannot smell them, and true, there is an unforgettable size and savor to elephant dung, but in these new breathtaking images, we humans can see animals without imprisoning them. Now I can already hear the pro-zoo defenders objecting that if we can eat animals, we can certainly trap and display them. But animals do not have the rights of people. The philosopher Peter Singer would call this pro-human arrogance “species-ism”—just another form of bigotry.

The tigers I saw spent all day pacing in their cages, and it was clear that they were not happy cats. The attack on Jeff Tierney ought to remind us that these are wild animals that we foolishly expect to behave like house pets so that we can ogle them. They were not built to be displayed. They were built, I would say created, to run free and be wild in the few wild parts that remain here on planet earth. We changed that for the tiger we named Berani, and his attack was not just an attack on the man bringing horsemeat for lunch. This was an attack on everything we do to wild animals for our convenience, for our expansion and for our enjoyment. The deal my Grandpa Lepa explained to me is a hard deal for the animals, and I am not sure how much longer we ought to defend it.

Long, but worth it...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20074337/site/newsweek/

[LeftyMom]

1. If anybody thinks zoos are educational, they haven't listened to the idiots in them.

"Look at the gorilla!"

There is no fucking gorilla at this zoo. That's an orangutan, like the sign in front of you says. Note the wide face and the orange body hair.

"Mom, why are the gorillas picking at eachother?" "Because they have lice, honey."

Those are chimpanzees, they don't have lice, that's how they reinforce their group bonds and it's a damn shame they're imprisoned to reinforce your idiocy.

[Robeson]

2. Nice article....

...I've forwarded it to others.