Deergate
On Saturday Beans, Hope, Kristian, Karen and I visited the National Zoo. As we were wandering around looking at the various animals, the comments were made that not only is it “mean” to keep the cheetah next to its prey, but also what happens when deer jump into the wrong enclosure.
It was hypothesized that should the deer jump into say the enclosure of any of the big cats that nature would take its course. Low and behold the very next day this question was answered definitively.
I’m sure the lioness’ first reaction was: “Holy crap you’re giving me live prey…hot damn,” followed closely by ”Nom, nom nom,” and then “NOOOOOOO don’t take away my free meal!” Of course it didn’t end well for either animal. Lioness didn’t get to eat said deer, and said deer had to be euthanized due to its injuries. I would say that the number one reason why the keepers didn’t want the lioness to eat the deer would be disease, followed closely by a PR nightmare.
While I don’t have a problem explaining to kids (and this will include my own) that in nature predators eat other animals; it is the natural order of things. I’m sure there were probably some traumatized kids out there…I mean how often do you get to see the a Discovery nature program LIVE.
Indeed it isn’t so much an incident like the one above that makes me uncomfortable visiting zoos it’s the very fact that we need zoos in the first place. Also I find it to be a good study of how stupid and annoying humans can be towards animals in general.
Case in point, while we were observing the red pandas, we met a real asshole. There is a part of the enclosure where the plexiglass is low, as in shoulder height or lower for all those taller than me (aka the rest of the planet). As I was watching one of the red pandas slumber not more than a foot away from the plexiglass under a bush, asshole walks up and yells “YO.” No reaction from the red panda, but I certainly jumped and glared at him. So then the fucktard reaches in grabs the top branch of the bush the slumbering red panda is under and starts to shake it.
If I had a cattle prod I would have used it on him. Even his girlfriend was unimpressed. Too bad it wasn’t a crocodile enclosure, I would have pushed him in and then rooted for the crocs.
Then there was the screaming horde of teenagers who chased the poor otters. Upon first arriving at the otter enclosure I noticed them frantically running past…and then around the corner came the horde.
And do not get me started on the number of children I witnessed climbing all over the rocks around various different enclosures right next to the signs that said DO NOT CLIMB THE ROCKS.
It’s not only the zoo where tourists turn off their brains, unfortunately I’ve watched this entitled asshole, moronic behavior at the other museums in the area.
What the hell has happened to respect and manners!?!?!
