Tag Archives: zoos

Context is Needed

chimp and tigerThis photograph, from this article (and many others), has been wandering around the net for a bit recently.  The animals are billed as being from the Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo near Bangkok, Thailand.

Okay, this is adorable.  However, please think to look closer:

Look in the background of the pictures.  Look at the big cat cubs kept alone in small dog kennels.  There’s a pair of them playing unsupervised on the floor.  Look at the stacks of cheap dog kennels — does this look like a reputable zoo to you?  How reputable does this photo from their “elephant show” (taken from this web site) look?  Check out the reviews on TripAdvisor.com — apparently the primary moneymaker for this facility is selling crocodile skin.  It started life as a crocodile farm and seems to have picked up some random exotics for the extra cash.

Is this what you want to support?  Quit sharing this “cute” picture without the full context.  It encourages people to think you can keep chimps and tigers as pets (hint: bad idea), and it’s generating publicity for a facility which encourages tourists to pose feeding and holding baby exotics (I can only imagine they pay for the privilege), mishandles them in “shows” (more photos here, here, here, and here, and in piles from Google image search), and slaughters crocodiles for leather and meat, as well as encouraging other facilities to do the sameFacilities like this routinely mistreat their animals.  The previous example mentions China, but it happens everywhere, Thailand (and the US) included.  Don’t support this kind of thing.

You like tigers?  Go here and support them.  Love chimps?  Go here and support them.  Put your effort into places that deserve it.  Don’t lend your time or blog space to this facility, unless this is the kind of animal husbandry you wish to support.

Warning: Visitors May Be Eaten

Sooner or later, the Lujan Zoo in Argentina is going to get around to providing an excellent demonstration of how evolution works. This is not necessarily because the zoo does a good job of explaining the science behind it, but rather because they let people ride the animals.

Photo: Barcroft MediaGood luck with that

The full article is available here.  (via Lowering the Bar)

There’s a lot to say about this, but I think all the blithering is nicely summed up by:

Just because nothing has happened yet does not mean nothing will ever happen.

This sort of thing happens all over the place — although slightly less often here in Litigation Land — and it always, always ends in idiocy.  It’s just a matter of time.  It wouldn’t be half the tragedy it is if looney behavior like this:

  • didn’t reward the zoo management with money from eager (and often foolish) consumers,
  • didn’t encourage other facilities (and the general public) to repeat this kind of behavior,
  • didn’t inevitably end in some poor soul (often someone’s child) getting his/her face ripped off,
  • and didn’t inevitably result in the animal(s) involved being euthanized when that happens (they must be vicious!).

I worked with the public and hand-raised wolves for ten years, very carefully supervising a lot of wolf-human interaction, and this kind of thing makes my hair stand on end.  (It can be done safely, but not like this!)