Seeing the big cats at the zoo is a guilty pleasure of mine. Why not just a pleasure, without the guilt? Because most of the cats at the zoo (tigers, lions, cheetahs, leopards, cougars, and jaguars) aren't native to southern Ontario, and part of me believes they don't belong here, not even in the trusted hands of expert zookeepers. There's the standard philosophical issue around whether it's fair to keep animals on display in enclosures, even if they were found injured and wouldn't have survived in the wild, or if they're part of breeding programs to bring back the species from near extinction - but I don't really want to get into that here. My concern stems from the resources required to keep animals in confinement, and whether our reasons for doing so are strong enough to justify the financial and environmental expense.
From feed to medication to staff, large (especially carnivorous) animals require lots of resources. For any of you who own medium to large sized dogs, this concept is likely familiar to you. How much chicken, pork, and beef does a typical zoo use on a daily basis to keep its animals well fed? How many vets and drugs does it take to keep them healthy? How are all of the droppings disposed of?
Most of the animals at the zoo can't handle this climate. Subsequently, they spend the late fall, all winter, and early spring indoors. My mind immediately races through the additional costs associated with that kind of a setup: building construction (materials, energy), heating (energy), lighting (energy), and cleaning (materials, probably toxic ones). I can't help but think about the world's impoverished living in slums, shantytowns, favelas, and tent cities - imagine what all of these resources could do for them!
There are other issues, such as the gas-powered zoomobile, which runs seven to ten hours a day, 364 days a year. Most visitors come by car because the public transit route is extremely long. The picnic tables are underused these days with so many families buying food on site in disposal containers. Don't get me started on the worthlessness of the gift shop!
Enough whining. What's the alternative? After all, zoos serve three important purposes: educating the public, conserving endangered species, and promoting better stewardship of our natural environment. My suggestion is to stick to those goals, but go local. In Montreal, there's a wonderful place called the Ecomuseum Zoo. The animals featured in this zoo are all indigenous to Quebec's St. Lawrence Valley, and the website says...
The animals that reside at the Ecomuseum zoo are all animals that could not survive in their natural environment. Most of our animals are here because they have injuries that would prevent them from surviving in the wild (i.e. They are unable to escape a predator or to eat on their own). All our animals come from accredited rehabilitation centers and zoological institutions. The Ecomuseum zoo is also a refuge for orphaned wildlife and other wild animals born in captivity. In these cases the animals have not acquired the knowledge or learned the behaviours necessary for their survival in the wild, so we offer them protection against predators, food, care and lots of love!
I'd like to see more of these types of zoos, even if it means no more tigers for me! I'm happy to settle for an Ontario bobcat or lynx, and of course the two little cats indigenous to my living room.
Kitties! Big kitties... good pictures!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the potential harm of zoos, and in the olde days they were certainly a travisty... but I think modern zoos (at least MOST modern zoos) do a much better job of actually fulfilling their assigned role. Helping wildlife and all that... and for us peasantry who can't afford a trip to Thailand to see tigers, I would allow a certain expense. The Toronto Zoo is taking steps in the right direction: using clean energy and green roofs and the like to minimize their impact, so their hearts are in the right place.
But I would also agree that there shouldn't be zoos all over the place, and that they have to be careful with how they're run.
Agreed. A few thousand people driving to Scarborough to see a caged Sumatran tiger is better than a few thousand people flying to Indonesia to see one in the wild. And I'm glad the Toronto Zoo has been making changes to minimize its carbon footprint. I'm just questioning whether animals from other continents should be on display here. We're trying to eat food grown close to home and buy products made where we live, why not focus our conservation efforts on our indigenous animals?
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big fan of seeing animals in captivity, especially birds. It broke my heart to see the state of the elephants at the zoo. I wanted to rescue them. In this climate it's harsh to have animals who are not indigenous to this region exposed to it and then spend so many months in confinement.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Angini! Thankfully the elephants will soon be relocated to somewhere more comfortable for them to "retire". I can't imagine how depressed they must feel over the colder months to be cooped up indoors in buildings that are much smaller than their outdoor enclosures. Even humans get cabin fever over the winter in Ontario, and most of us were born and raised in this climate!
ReplyDeleteThat's great - I never had heard of the Ecomuseum Zoo in montreal before! nice!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Andrea! I have always had a hard time at the zoo. So many animals kept in small spaces far away from their native climates. Seems so cruel. I want to set them all free like the monkey in Goodnight Gorilla!
ReplyDeleteUrban Girl - I highly recommend that you visit the Ecomuseum Zoo next time you're in Montreal. It's not downtown but worth the trek to the suburbs (just like the Toronto Zoo here).
ReplyDeleteLori - Yes, it seems cruel. The one thing I appreciate is that most of the animals who need a lot of social contact are in the company of a few other members of their species, so at least they're not alone in their misery.
ReplyDeleteDid you get a chance to see the lion-tailed macaques exhibit?! This is the first exhibit at the Toronto Zoo to use geothermal energy, which is wonderful, and hopefully will lead to more environmentally friendly ways to heat and cool exhibits.
ReplyDeleteI skipped the macaques but noticed that the exhibit was powered geothermally, which is exciting. What an interesting application for this technology!
ReplyDeleteI had some of the same thoughts when I visited the Cal Academy earlier this year -- no big animals, but lots of reptiles, amphibians, fish, and birds. On a moral level, I wondered if the awe I felt at meeting the eye of a chameleon was worth keeping an animal in captivity. On an environmental level, I wondered if all the resources being expended on this museum were truly educating visitors on the need to value and preserve our planet. I didn't come to any conclusions, but I totally understand the guilty pleasure feeling of seeing magnificent animals in the setting of a zoo or museum.
ReplyDeleteJennifer - I'm glad I'm not the only person who feels torn about this issue. Is there more that zoos and museums could be doing to get the environmental message across? Does telling kids that exotic animals are endangered lead them to care more about preserving the habitat of indigenous species? What messages do people actually go home with after a trip to the zoo?
ReplyDeleteHey Andrea, I've definitely come to those same issues when I visited the zoo last. It felt inhumane for the animals for the reasons you described. That Ecomuseum sounds like a really awesome idea! I would love if zoos were more like that.
ReplyDeleteLynn - I hope that these issues get more and more press. The Toronto Zoo is going to retire its elephants within the next two years (something like seven of them had died in the past 25 years) and I expect that in good time, they will do the same for some of the other animals.
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