Rhinos and Zebras

Last month, I was able to get together with my siblings for a family reunion in California. The best part of the trip was seeing my brothers and sisters and their spouses. The second best part of the trip was getting to pet a rhinoceros.

One of my brothers founded Project Survival's Endangered Cat Haven, a zoo of a kind for big cats (lions, tigers, leopards, etc.) As a result, he has made friends in other zoos. Our family went to one of those zoos, and we got a special treat.

This other zoo had an enclosure for rhinoceroses, zebras, and gnus. Years ago, it had elephants instead of rhinos, but animal rights activists have made it quite difficult to provide a home for elephants born in captivity who could never go back to the wild. (A topic for another post someday, one about the great harm animal rights activists cause to animals.)

One of my brother’s friends brought us up by the fence of the enclosure. To draw rhinos close, workers put small bundles of hay by the fence. One of the rhinos came up to the fence, and we were able to pet it. These were Southern White Rhinos, a species that can weigh up to 5000 pounds, but along came a Damara Zebra (those weigh 500 - 700 pounds) that kicked dirt right in the face of the rhino we were petting. The zebra then snagged the hay and dashed off.

The rhino shook its head, but just let the zebra go. What a stinker that zebra was.

And there it was, right in front of my eyes: a zoological representation of how the Republicans of Congress get their hay snatched by the Democrats every session.

I thought, “Is this analogy too on the nose?” But there it was.