WILD or CAGED?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 281, 10 November 1944, Page 10

WILD or CAGED?

-T The Condition of Animals in Zoos IR,-In your article "A Big Day for the Animals," the statement is made that the coats of wild animals cannot compare with those of their brothers in the zoo, This is a reversal of the truth. The physical condition of wild creatures is far superior to that of animals in captivity. An authority on the subject, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, stated that the skeletons of caged carnivora are often good for nothing as museum specimens, their bones being rickety and distorted. Many people make the error of judging the condition of wild lions and tigers, etc., by beasts that have been shot in close proximity to villages, animals that have become man-eaters through old age and inability to hunt a swifter game. Naturally the physical state of these creatures is deteriorating. But younger animals, those which fall victim to cunning traps, pits, etc., whose coats are not poor through age, are a thing of beauty. I speak from experience, having lived in India, Burma and Africa, In your article it is further stated: "A well-fed, comfortable animal in a zoo has a long lead on a scraggy, fearridden, .empty-bellied creature of the wild." I have yet to meet a scraggy, empty-bellied wild creature. Those I have come in contact with were, without exception, in perfect condition, The scraggy, miserable variety is, however, to be seen in our zoos, Further, happy, free animals in their natural environment are no more in constant fear of death. than denizens of a city. We are aware of the imminence of death ‘in busy streets, but this knowledge does not keep us, in a constant state of anxiety. The creature most feared in forest and jungle is man. ’ It is admitted that no longer does the caged beast have to seek food; neither does a person in prison, but few of us evince a desire to go there. Regular meals are no compensation for loss of liberty. Is freedom, for which man has fought all through the centuries, to be denied the animal world? Is that famous utterance-"Give me liberty or give me death" to apply to mankind only? In the very capturing of wild life for zoos there is entailed gross cruelty. Joseph Belmont, in Catching Wild Beasts Alive, says: "It is lucky for us that they are denied the gift of human speech, for we should have to bow our heads in shame and humility if they could voice their opinion about man and his ways." Carl Hagenbeck, who launched one -of the largest zoos in the world at Stellingen Park, Germany, speaking of captured wild animals, said: "Among all animals a sort of mental depression seems to take place when they have been only recently captured, and in the case of the more highly evolved and nervous creatures, such as the anthropoids and especially the gorillas, this mental depression often terminates in . death." It is futile to contend that wild animals taken from their accustomed (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) ~

and natural surroundings are happy in captivity. As for the claim that the zoo is' an education, Nature cannot’ be studied under unnatural conditions. Undoubtedly caged beasts do afford a certain type of mind considerable pleasure, but there are thousands of men and women to whom such exhibitions give dire distress, who look forward to the day when zoos are relegated to the past, along with other barbarities ELIZABETH CONNORS (Wellington).