The zoo and me

I have always loved animals. All of them. Big or small. Just LOVED them. I could never bring myself to enjoy eating meat, was ordering my cheese burgers without meat even as a kid, and finally became a vegetarian when I was 16. It was the most natural thing to do for me. No struggles. I loved animals too much to eat them.

So not enjoying zoos kind of also happened naturally. I have never understood why it was necessary to cage animals so people could gape at them. That's what nature documentaries were made for. D'uh. Seeing the animals I loved caged in and looking as depressed as I felt was the worst thing for me. It almost caused physical pain. And don't get me started on the circus.
I vividly remember a day at Hagenbeck's Tierpark in Hamburg. This zoo was said to be a progressive zoo that treated their animal great in environments appropriate for each species. So I went. And was immediately traumatized by watching a large wild cat pacing around her way too small CAGE. No outside compound. Nothing. Just a frickin' cage! All I wanted to do is break the cage bars and free this gorgeous creature from all the pain reflected in its sad eyes. I remember crying that day. I remember crying days after; just thinking about this experience made me bawl. (I should probably mention that I am hyper sensitive and not just a complete lunatic :P .)

Then a while later I heard about "the dolphin incident" at said zoo's dolphinarium (which I refused to go see the day I visited): A group of dolphins drowned a baby dolphin. In my mind they drowned him to save him from a miserable life in captivity. Enough said. That was it for me. No zoos in my future. I still went to the occasional petting zoo because goats.

But no major zoos with lions, tigers and elephants.

I still felt strongly about this when I had kids myself. I did not accompany my first child to her first zoo trip. After all: I had principles!

Until I broke down and went to the Bronx Zoo for the first time. I went on a Wednesday when entrance was free because I still don't want to support a zoo for stealing animals of their freedom. We saw the sea lions which were hilarious, my kids had a blast watching them. Yes. A lot has changed since I was a kid. Zoos have improved. Animals have space, are treated much better and a lot of times species-appropriately.  But then we came to the Birds of Prey area. They saw eagles and other ginormous, gorgeous, wild birds caged in. I couldn't bring myself to look at them and their depressing existence and sat in a shady spot until my family was done. Thinking: "My kids are sensitive like me. They will figure this all out for themselves. Until then I can not deprive them of these experiences if I want to be good mother. Until then I will have someone stronger than me (their dad) guide them through these life moments that I am too weak and emotional to handle."

Then we went again. Again on a Wednesday. This time we saw lions. Young lions. Born in captivity. Still wrong, BUT at least they never knew life any other way. They had a nice compound to live in. They looked content (As far as I can judge lion's facial expressions). My kids went CRAZY when they saw them!! It made my heart explode. Then we came to the baby giraffes. And this time my heart exploded because they were SO AMAZING!! Such majestic animals, close up, with skin much too large for their small bodies. I felt like crying, but this time not because I was sad for them. I was actually happy to be able to witness these gorgeous creatures right there in front of me. They had space, food, other smaller animals run around with them and it did not look like utter torture for them to live in this zoo. And my kids were so happy. I was so grateful for this experience.

I still have principles. I am not sure I could look at imprisoned elephants. The last experience was a positive one. I feel that they mostly did great at creating species-appropriate compounds for their animals. But I will not support a place that cages especially birds in homes much too small and not appropriate for their needs. If I go back to this zoo I will still not pay to get in.

So that's that. My thoughts on the Zoo.