A Zoo For Christchurch ?

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31198, 24 October 1966, Page 10

A Zoo For Christchurch ?

Sir,—“Ex-head Bear-keeper” is a little behind the times and needs educating. Nowadays television and clever cameramen bring wild animals before our eyes in their natural conditions and with their natural dignity. Zoos are not educational. You cannot learn much about another person or animal by just looking at him for a short time, particularly under the confining conditions of a zoo. People who say there should be zoos do not realise that mankind is trying to become civilised and overcome such bad habits as imprisoning fellow inhabitants in cages. I endorse “Retrogression’s” remarks. It is discouraging to hear that a Progress League is travelling in a backward direction. —Yours etc. NO ZOOS. October 22, 1966.

Sir, —I.S.T. well knows that the tethered dog does not enter into this question. “Zoo animals have regular meals and comfortable quarters,” he says; but in many cases they are far from adequate. Cages are cramped, blasted by cold winds or scorched by sun. Upkeep with personnel would be an everlasting expense and drain on the community. Then because of its inhumanity, this puts it out of the question. Investigation would reveal in every zoo instances of unsavoury and pitiable conditions, overcrowding and health neglect, persecution and attack by animal companions with intervention and rescue all too slow. A city must think well before launching out in a zoo. To plan and establish one would run into thousands. The longer I live the more I am convinced that man on the whole cannot be trusted with the charge of animals which are too often victims of cruel exploitation.—Yours, etc., RETROGRESSION. October 22, 1966.