If you live in or around Portland Oregon you probably know that November 30th was a special day. Rose-Tu, a captive Asian elephant at the Portland zoo gave birth to a calf. Lots of pictures were taken and lots of comments on how cute the baby is were flowing across the news channels.
But not everyone was smiling.
Yes, the baby is very cute and it is hard not to smile when looking at someone so innocent and precious. But the first thought that came to my mind is that this little being will spend the rest of her life in captivity.
What does Lily have to look forward to:
Her future at the Portland zoo isn’t even guaranteed. Elephants are often moved to new facilities or sent to perform in circuses.
I am not naïve. I know that elephants in the wild are hunted, there environments are shrinking, and they are endangered. But zoos and wild animal parks are not the answer. While living in the wild has a whole different set of problems the very, very least we can do is stop the breeding and capture of elephants and improve the life for those remaining in captivity while we figure out how to save those still living free.
Have to agree: zoos are no place for animals. No matter how comfortable, a prison is still a prison.
I wonder too: are apartments, offices, buses, highways, big-box stores, and all the other trappings of modern society any place for humans? Even if we have done so willingly, we have also removed ourselves from our own natural habitat. Any anthropologist can tell us that our bodies, minds, and social structures have all changed as a result of this. Studying the urban-dweller human provides few clues as to the true essence of undisturbed natural human nature. In much the same way, studying an elephant in a zoo would provide a zoologist with few clues as to the true essence of undisturbed natural elephant nature.
By: Know Thank You on December 18, 2012
at 9:34 am
I also have to wonder if zoologists know that they are not truly learning from caged beings. Actually I don’t know how they cannot. So what does that mean? I don’t think everyone at the zoo is a bad person but how can they look at these captured lives every day and not feel empathy and not acknowledge to themselves if to no one else, that this is wrong and serves very little more than a way to make money for shareholders.
By: Debbie on December 22, 2012
at 11:03 pm
Elephants also wind up in roadside “zoos” and traveling elephant-ride events. There’s one in my town now – Three skinny, old, bored, beaten, half dead elephants rock back and forth till some parent hands $5.00 over to the keeper for a ride around a ring. It’s a sickening spectacle of total insensitivity on the part of the gawkers and customers. I’m also writing a letter to my local paper to tell them just that!
http://www.sunshinefleamarket.com/#!special-events
My heart goes out to poor Lily, her mother and all the other prisoners.
By: Provoked on December 18, 2012
at 4:54 pm
It just breaks my heart to see elephants in traveling shows and as “rides”. I have specific organizations I donate money to every year and one of them is the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. They post the story of each elephant that comes to them and I can hardly read them without feeling overwhelmed. I’m going to write a letter to the sunshine flea market also. Thanks for posting the link. Nothing helps me fight my grief better than doing something, anything to give the victims a voice.
By: Debbie on December 22, 2012
at 11:13 pm
It’s all so sad making. Controlling another living being is a terrible indictment of the controller.
By: veganelder on January 2, 2013
at 3:46 am