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Can’t I Just Enjoy the Zoo Anymore?
I traveled last week to Washington DC with my daughter and her three children. This trip had been in the works for several years. It was planned as the “Grandma Camp” for this summer. (Usually, the kids come to our house here in the desert for a week and we swim, do fun things, and stay up late watching movies.) However, I decided about four years ago that we’d go to the nation’s capital when they were old enough to understand and enjoy it. I saved up to pay for the trip; my daughter bought her own plane ticket. It was delightful…exhausting, but delightful.
One of our destinations was the National Zoo. It is a smaller zoo but had some fine exhibits, and we got to see a baby gorilla — so darling! But, I began to feel annoyed as I moved from section to section.
Every time I’d read the information about the animal displayed, it focused on how us horrible humans were endangering this beast. Every. Single. Animal. Seriously.
At first, I thought: Well, it’s possible that this Sumatran tiger could be endangered; after all, it kills and eats humans. I’d probably kill any of them that I saw if I lived near it. But, it was a theme in that zoo. Each and every exhibit featured how its natural environment was being altered by people, resulting in the endangerment of the animal on display. Okay, maybe the ants that the anteaters consumed weren’t affected.
I began to feel annoyed and pestered. It wasn’t just the National Zoo–it was the National Guilt Exhibit. The apparent goal was to make you feel so bad that you were a human, and lived on the earth screwing it up for the animals.
Now, my understanding of my place in the whole ecosystem is to “take care of this place.” And that the earth was created for us, the humans, to come and live. That was the whole point of the earth’s creation. The beasts, the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, every herb, and fruit, and plant was created for the humans to care for and use.
I learned this, of course, from reading the Bible, listening to my parents’ teachings, and in church. Our family depended on the earth to provide our sustenance; we were farmers. We bought very little food from the grocery store. Therefore, I knew all about caring for the earth, tending to the animals, using the resources wisely.
I also recognize that there have certainly been instances of dreadful misuse of the earth’s resources in some areas; and undoubtedly there are still some places that aren’t being cared for as we are instructed to in the scriptures.
But, I’m not sure when the purpose of a zoo became to guilt-trip all the people who come to visit. Have you experienced this ever? I took my children to the San Diego Zoo regularly when they were small and we lived there between 1974-1986. We’d buy a yearly membership (with grandma’s Christmas money) so that we could just pop in for a short visit when we were in that part of town. We’d go see just the snakes, or just the elephants, or just the monkeys. With a large group of small children, that was the best way to go. Plus, it was located very near to the Navy hospital where we were frequent flyers with the pediatric department. We loved it!
So, has the purpose of a zoo changed since I last frequented a zoo regularly? Are they now just another way to be flogged for being a human, and screwing up Mother Gaia by breathing the air, and daring to live in a house, and driving a car?
Published in General
We need more like him!
I haven’t seen it at the Indianapolis Zoo, but it is also a small one and there are some hinting narratives. The dolphin show script seems to slightly suggest the dolphins are superior because of their harmony. But, as a small zoo, funding is their chief concern and they don’t seem to go over the top with it.
Anyone who knows anything about dolphins knows that they are cruel creatures. It’s not uncommon for one pod to drown a rival pod by swarming it and keeping it from making it to the surface to breathe.
When “conversation” became “environmentalism”, the human being went from humans trying to conserve nature to being a blight on the planet.
This.
Maybe human beings require fire-and-brimstone end-times self-flagellation -type stuff.
Yes.
And when will Florida get serious about the alligators inhabiting people’s back yards – and pretty soon their houses? If you’re lucky, animal control will come to your property and move the gators to another area – to reproduce, adding to the overall population. BTW, are they making any headway with the boas?
I take it you mean “conservation”. You’re absolutely right. Instead of being stewards of the environment, we’re now supposed to withdraw from nature, never to touch Gaia again.
I don’t know these particular women, but I do wonder if a lot of the ‘how can I bring a child into the world the way things are?’ has less to do with the world than it does to do with their not being able to acquire a worthy mate or not believing themselves mature enough to be parents.
No, no. Look at her smiling weathered and toothless face – she’s truly happy not being weighed down by material things (other than sticks, which are natural!) in her Rousseauian paradise.
Not in these cases. The two I’m referring to are sisters. Both have been married and divorced and are starting round two. Both are totally dedicated to animals. One a veterinarian, the other a zoo keeper/educator. From a great (military) family (long time friends of ours). We love them. They’re highly likable, decent, and hardworking. They’ve just completely lost the Judeo/Christian thread about the meaning of life and have thoroughly saturated their thinking in lefty environmentalism. It’s sad.
?
yes. probably.
FYI: I killed two rats this week. Not feeling much guilt (yet).
When I said ‘a lot of the…’ I was thinking of people who decide not to spawn in general but since I introduced it with ‘I don’t know these particular women’ it really came off as though I was commenting on them.
I did intend to target your friends, but a fair reading says that that is what I did.
I apologize.
Yes she would, and she has crippled herself working to save enough to buy one for her granddaughter.
Well, maybe. But think how much better off they will be if we prevent them from getting one. Bettering the lives of third-world peoples is just cultural imperialism, right?
Every major zoo I’ve been to in the past thirty years has been that way.
Yep but broken down granny has a plan up her sleeve to get that stove anyway. She is going to sell her prettiest niece to that nice young man from the big city who has found a good job for the teen working as a nanny for some wealthy family.
Yiddish.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tchotchke
“Can’t I just enjoy the zoo anymore?” No. Not allowed. All fields of knowledge, from Algebra to Zoology, are being transformed into ‘Social Sudies,’ always with a strong political slant.
See my post Skipping Science Class and a later post, Skipping Science Class, continued
No need at all. You just gave me a chance to blather on…
Which explains–along the lines of the O/P–why one has to have one’s guard up to go to a museum, particularly any one involving history. I love art museums, and, to date, they seem to have been spared, other than special exhibits given over to artists from the preferred groups. But I keep waiting. A few of our revered male artists of the last century or so weren’t the greatest people.
In the early 1900s, the term “gas-stove wife” was was adopted to mean a woman who had plenty of time on her hands for fun, as opposed to having to deal with the coal or wood stoves and its issues.
http://www.americanheritage.com/content/gas-range
I just don’t know what we’d do without Cajuns. But how in the world did you know about this?
If he lived in Tennessee he would have needed, by state law, the proper permits: unless, of course, it is in your house and you feel genuinely threatened – or its threatening your livestock.
My own philosophy is don’t ask, don’t tell.
As @davidfoster said above (#49), no, you are not allowed to just enjoy the zoo (or most museums). You must be subjected to Leftist agitprop.
This makes as good a place as any to bring up my confusion about what I perceive to be logical disconnects in the “humans are bad” narrative.
I follow the Jewish and Christian scriptures that posit that humans are created by God to be qualitatively different from (and superior to), other creatures. Humans have responsibilities toward the rest of creation because of our superior position, and to preserve the home in which we are placed.
But, I assume most people who run zoos believe a Creator-free narrative of world history in which humans are not qualitatively different from other creatures, and that humans are merely the “top of the food chain” as a result of the natural selection that comes from “survival of the fittest.” If that is their view, isn’t it to be celebrated that we are top of the food chain? Isn’t is a perversion of the natural order of things for humans to self-compromise our successful climb up the evolutionary chain, and to provide any special assistance to those creatures less capable?
“Dreadful misuse of the Earth’s resources” sez WHO? Well, obviously humans, the only species with the facility of judgment…but, uh, who died and left these judgmental bozos God?
But I don’t think all is lost, I mean, I think humans may yet resume our rightful place as lords of creation. ( yuh, that’s what I said–because we are the only species with the consciousness of anything other than immediate stimuli, okay? )
Because, near me, they’re building a big, new…(.Wait For It! ) AQUARIUM!! Yes, here in the mountains! Far,far, from the habitat of whales, sharks, rays, etc.
Let’s face it: if lions and tigers get out of the zoo in DC, they could survive. Right? They could start by eating the homeless, and then progress to our legislators. And the big aquarium in Baltimore is right on the harbor, so it’s possible those finny creatures might make it back to the sea.
But: if tropical fish and ocean-born Leviathans ever find themselves at liberty in the Pocono Mountains, they won’t last 2 hours!
So all I’m sayin’ is, if people will tolerate an aquarium here ( and you can bet this thing isn’t being built without a lot of solid market research!) well, there’s still gotta be a soft spot for zoos. When all this human self-hatred, this suicidal urge of our species, dies down, zoos will be back.
But that probably won’t be in our lifetimes.
Sometimes what I remember scares me. But as a kid, I used to try to pick up distant radio stations at night. My favorite was WWL in New Orleans. I developed a lifelong appreciation of Cajun stories.
Having grown up in the Washington, D.C. area, I can say with some certainty that the purpose of the National Zoo–passing legislation, confirming appointees, ratifying treaties, passing a budget(ok, maybe not this one)- has not changed a bit. But from an environmentalist point of view, it would be interesting to consider if Washington, D.C. (The governmental part, anyway) should be considered a “Dreadful use of the Earth’s resources “(h/t Hypatia).🙂
<sarcasm off>
<cynicism always on>
It’s best to chop the body into several segments and dispose of the pieces in different graves so the PETA detectives can’t assemble the evidence against you.