Is it?

Ever Since our childhood, we have been taught that zookeepers are very cruel people and that they cage the animals inside bars. We are told that they miss the freedom to explore in nature. I agree. There are so many petitions to free the animals. People suggest animals exhibit neurotic behaviour when kept in captivity.

But there is more to it. The art of getting animals used to the presence of humans is the science of zookeeping. Modern zoos are designed to give animals a high quality of life. The whole movement of zoos is more like colonialism. Animals get good quality food, proper flora, time to time health checkups and on top of that they are safe from all the threats, parasites, viruses they face in the jungle.

Take a moment to realise what if we close the zoos and free all the animals. It would be similar to you being kicked out of the house and chased by people living on the streets. Do you think you will jump and dance with joy? No, you wouldn’t. Similarly, animals are territorial species, only a familiar territory would allow them to fulfil their needs of food and water. Finding all the places — lookouts, places for resting, eating, drinking etc — within the territory and getting food six days a week makes them super comfortable in the environment. Even the newly settled animals behave in the same way of owning the territory. There have been numerous cases where animals could flee but they didn’t because they are taken good care of.

But humans, they are the most dangerous animals in the zoo. We feed all kinds of foreign material to animals just to get entertained when it is clearly mentioned everywhere in zoos not to do so. Blades, nails, paperclip, pen, rubber band, comb, pieces of broken glass etc are the reason for the obituary of many animals in zoos as well outside. At zoos, cruelty is more active and direct. Animals get their arms broken, beaks cracked, digestive systems disturbed.

Freeing the animals’ movement doesn’t seem so bad now. Instead, this will save the animals from the cruelty of the human world.

“When humans act with cruelty we characterize them as “animals”, yet the only animal that displays cruelty is humanity.”
— Anthony D. Williams