IS THE ZOO CRUEL?

Evening Star, Issue 19456, 14 January 1927, Page 7

IS THE ZOO CRUEL?

AH APPEAL FOR SYMPATHY To protest against the keeping of animals and birds in constant close confinement and to demand further legislation were the objects of a public meeting held recently at the Central Hall, London, writes the Hon. Stephen Coleridge, in ‘Answers.’ Addressing the meeting, I said that to me the Zoological Gardens were a source of much sadness, a sadness made the more poignant by the dull insensibility of the staring crowds. Most people regard the Zoological Gardens as a delightful place in which to spend an idle afternoon.^ This, I venture to say, is only another example of how little reflection is commonly given to matters to which we ore accustomed. ( MISERY WE DON’T MIND, We have all become quite accustomed •to the spectacle of a butcher’s shop. But if we had never seen a butcher’s shop in childhood, and so become accustomed to it, tbs sight would strike us with horror and disgust. The spectacle of the carcasses, hung upside down, with blood dripping from severed necks, would be unbearable if were were not inured to it from youth up. In the same way w© have all become insensitive to the miseries of caged beasts and birds. No doubt children and their nurses have their curiosity and interest pleasantly excited by looking at a living lion or tiger pacing restlessly backwards and forwards behind iron bars. But to some people the sight is one of dreary, never-ending unhappiness. Many of the bigger carnivorous animals are imprisoned, for life in yards and cages of such that any enjoyment or well-being is quite impossible.

MAKING CHILDREN CALLOUS. I would like the many kindly and thoughtful folk to ask themselves this question: Who is really benefited in any substantial way by tho sight of these poor creatures, with their “ long mechanic pacings to and fro”? What useful scientific purpose is served by this exhibition of man’s cruelty to God’s creatures- animals that properly belong to the forests and plains and Woods? Wo come out of the lion houses and pass to where proud, disdainful-look-ing eagles occupy their cages. Hero you see the noblest of birds, whose nature it is to soar aloft among the mountain fastnesses, sitting in motionless misery, hour after hour. What pleasure can the wretchedness of these really noble birds to anyone, scientist or layman? What ran tho merely curious learn from their forlorn imprisonment? Children brought to see them learn to be insensible to animal misery. If there is anything else they can learn from looking at them I should be glad to hear what it is. Science, of course, has no concern with conduct, and therefore, has nothing to say regarding the inhumanity of treating living creatures in this way. But I should like to hear what science achieves hy caging eagles for life. The fact that imprisonment is a punishment seems to bo entirely overlooked ; yet it has been so regarded in all countries and at all times. Why, then, should these blameless creatures be punished? To them it must be a more woeful thing to be imprisoned than it is for a. man or a woman, for they have no Imagination with which they can summon hope to their aid. Who, among us, would think of imprisoning his favorite dog in a cage? No doubt some of the Zoo animals and birds are not unhappy—the birds that live in the larger cages, permitting proper flight, for instance. Then there are the elephants and the camels that walk about, and the naturally immobile reptiles; they are probably contented enough. But these are exceptions, and do not save tho Zoological Cardens from being a place of sadness to sensitive people. FREEDOM FOR THE. CAPTIVES.

In the words of the resolution unanimously passed at the meeting to which 1 have referred; “We claini on their behalf freedom from captivity, and, until this is gained, wc call on all to use their influence in forming a strong public opinion against such practices, and to encourage education _in schools on the just claims of captive animals to proper and humane treatment.”

I believe that the time is not far distant when Zoos and captive animals and birds will he regarded by the majority of us as inconsistent with right notions of humane conduct and the ideals of freedom and fair play.