Zoolander

I enjoy hunting. I eat steak. I hate the concept of zoos.

Saturday we went to one of the two major zoos in the Chicagoland area.

Of the two, it’s considered to be one of the best. I suppose it is. It’s kind of like saying the most humane concentration camp in Nazi Germany.

It all has to do with the permanent terminal confinement of animals who will never see the light of day in the wild again.

Snow leopards, beautiful animals, pacing back and forth in an obsessive compulsive kind of way. A walrus swimming the same route for hours. Dolphins, one even newborn, swimming back and forth over and over and over and….

The ones that got to me the most were the gorillas. I don’t believe in evolution but I sure don’t believe those created just a bit lower than us should be confined and gawked at in a permanent purgatory.

I know, how would a child ever see an actual elephant, rhino, hippo or gorilla unless there were zoos.

And I know that if any of those animals were to escape to the outside world Madagascar style they would be dead meat, so to speak, in an hour. They can never be re-acclimated to the wild.

And I know that zoos give appreciation for endangered species that other venues can not.

And I know that some zoos propagate species which may not be able to be propagated otherwise in the wild maintaining a gene pool.

I know all that. So, save the argument.

It’s just that Zoos make me sad, particularly the gorillas.