Dr. Michael W. Fox’s excerpt from Inhumane Society: The American Way of Exploiting Animals discusses zoos as cruel, industrialized systems, outmoded and demeaning. I disagree with Fox’s view that zoos cannot justify their existence. While he sheds light on the disturbing methods of captivity and containment, he ignores the fundamental elements that differentiate humans from animals. Fox argues strongly that animals, especially performing animals, are forced to undergo painful and unnatural training. This can seem inhumanly cruel, especially since the public falls so readily for the deceptive delight of seeing animals roaming happily in their cages. The public, blinded by the convincing mock-jungles and realistic backdrops, are unaware that these animals are forever separated from their natural habitats.
But why is this so horrible? Yes, the animals are separated from their natural life-styles and eco-systems and are placed in enclosed, foreign areas that distantly resemble their homes. But they are not humans. While a human might feel trapped and frustrated after years of living in a cage, animals do not have the same kinds of emotions or mindsets. Scientifically, we cannot prove ourselves accurate in stating conclusively that animals can experience pain or suffering in the same way we do. If we don’t really know how zoos affect animals, how do we know the animals are negatively affected at all?
After a performing animal endures years of rigorous training, traumatic incidents, and gawking faces, it may change. After it is prodded and tortured, that animal may act and react differently to situations. It may appear damaged. But isn’t the same true of a computer? A washing machine?
Fox discusses Anthropomorphism and how humans relate to animals. He establishes the harm in thinking of humans and non-humans as two separate entities. Yet this is the truth. Because we have such complex feelings and emotions, deep-rooted channels of character that build us as humans, we cannot imagine that monkeys in cages don’t feel trapped and frustrated. Looking at animals, we want, on some level, to relate to them as equals. But this can never be. We must accept that animals are nowhere near as complex as we are. They are soulless.
We read too much into animal rights, believing animals should be treated with as much respect as humans. But let us take a step back and look at how we treat humans. Unprovoked, we launch brutal attacks on foreign countries, killing hundreds – thousands – of innocent civilians. We use cheap foreign labor and exploit natural resources purely for profit and monetary gain. In a sense, we are all trapped and on exhibition – but we are in invisible cages, and we are not fed or taken care of as zoo animals are. Forget the melancholy Black Panther, roaming aimlessly in its restrictive cage, repetitively cutting itself, with its lifeless yellow eyes. Look instead at the zoo groundskeeper, roaming aimlessly in his grungy smock, a broom in his hand, working all day everyday of his pathetic life, for paltry wages. Is living that life not as horrible as being on exhibition in a cage? Is the miserable, unnoticed groundskeeper not as likely to cut himself as the suicidal panther? Where do we draw the line between what is humane and what is not?
Before we start on the disabling pressures inflicted on animals in zoos, such as susceptibility to disease, lethargy, and depression, we must question the capacity for feeling our subjects have. Why is it that nice-looking, exotic animals, such as panthers, dolphins, tigers and giraffes in captivity are “brutalized victims,” while other animals, like pigeons, skunks, chipmunks, squirrels, insects, fish and amphibians are “disgusting,” and guiltlessly murdered daily? We are thrilled by the uncommon, yet in the end animals are animals. How can Fox say that “zoos are an unnecessary evil”? Animals are fed and cared for. By his standards, life itself is an unnecessary evil. Some zoo animals are victims of disease, malnutrition, inbreeding, learned helplessness, and lethargy, yes. But so are humans. Fox mentions the “psychological needs of the animals.” Such a comment displays blind naiveté on his part. How does he know animals have psychological needs? The psychological mindset of an animal goes no deeper than instinct and experience.
Zoos: unethical exploitation of wildlife? Possibly. But, at deepest core, why are they evil? They make money and they provide entertainment. This in itself justifies existence.
Tags: anthropomorphism, black panther, cage, inhumane society: the american way of exploiting animals, michael w. fox, zoo