Life in a cage, feelings unbound.

As I have mentioned before, I believe carefully attended zoos are an important and indispensable resource for humans, because not everyone can go out into the wild and find the animals and birds and not everyone may want to. All people want, en masse, is an easy way to do what they must (not what they want, they do bend over backwards for what they want).

So, people take their children to zoos, because they should. So children learn about animals.  And it is wonderful, according to me. Because they may then want to go out into the wild even if their parents never did, so zoos develop some appreciation for nature and starting there, the world is one’s oyster.

Additionally, of course there are many scientific / conservation issues that good zoos participate in. That is primarily an adult interest and pivotal in managing, conserving and even observing wildlife and animal/insect behavior.

This particular “zoo”, where the photos are from : GW memorial exotic animals park, should probably not allow young children in though, the animals were very close and we all know that accidents can happen even when animals are yards away inside a cage. The animals did not look happy, were enclosed in mini cages sometimes only about twice their size, if at all. It is not a place anyone can stretch to call educational because it is no way to display such neglect to creatures that depend on us for their welfare.

While I did not see any abuse being undertaken, it appears that GW exotic animal park has been under fire by PETA.

This is my contribution to boundaries, this weeks photo challenge

boundaries-4-strawberry tiger
Strawberry tiger
Grizzly’s r(cage)



These boundaries define safety for us and confinement for the animals. They sometimes are the only places left that old animals can continue to live in, they won’t survive in the wild otherwise. They cannot contain the animal’s frustration, or their bonding with their cage mate, or for ones used to living with people, their bonding to people.

I understood  this location (GW exotic animals park) as a breach in the boundary between the limits of human kindness and humility and inhuman behavior.

In the photos, the Grizzly was newly acquired by the park, was very frustrated at being bound. Not surprisingly. The two tigers were in a cage barely big enough for them but shared a moment of togetherness. The cuckatoo, was clearly previously owned by people, trained to speak and stuck its head out to talk to us, saying “Hi there, hello!!’ and following us till the very limit of its cage. The strawberry tiger( a recessive trait) is one of only about 33 in the world and I don’t know if he is still alive.

The whole experience was disturbing and I hope these animals can be placed elsewhere and the place shut down or put under new management.

2 Comments Add yours

  1. Cee Neuner says:

    These are terrific photos. Iove the bear.

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