Warped Wildlife Wrap-up: Installment 1

This month I'm highligting three exotic animal incidents that happened in April 2015. These incidents were logged by Born Free USA, a non-profit organization I strongly recommend you check out and support any way you can. http://www.bornfreeusa.org

The first incident comes from Beufort, South Carolina. An exotic pet owner was fined for not having the proper zoning documents to display his lions and tigers at a flea market. Throughout the United States people people set up roadside attractions and make a buck off of aquired wildlife.

Now I freely admit that I once -once- mind you, contributed to this money game. When my daughters were young, elementary age, i paid some guy to take a photo pf my girls holding his lion cub. It was somewhere in Northeast Ohio. I think it was $5 a shot. We learn from our mistakes, folks. I haven't nor will I ever do anything like that again.

There are more privately-owned tigers in the United States than there are roaming around in the wild. We have to fight to keep the big cats, as well as all wild animals, free to trek in their own environment. Not only for thier own sake, but removing them from their unique habitat alters that landscape forever. One way to help is to not financially contribute to these exploitative attractions. Banning them forever would be the next logical step.

The second incident comes from Northeast, Ohio. A two year old boy fell twelve feet down into a cheetah enclosure at the Cleveland Zoo. His mother was holding him, along with his sibling, over the railing of the pit that housed the earth's fastest felines. As a result, the poor young fella broke his leg. He's damn lucky he wasn't attacked.

Although the majority, rightly so, are up in arms over the mother's blantant irresponsiblity, i propose this to you. The incident wouldn't have happened if the cheetahs weren't there in the first place.

Zoos are big business. In the end, they have to make money or they will close. Simple economics and capitalism. If the wildlife under their care(sic) dams up that monetary flow, then their life may become forfeit.

Abigail Geer gives us five reasons why we should ban zoos. They are:

1. Zoos can't provide sufficient space.

Tigers are very territorial and can travel up to thirty-seven miles, daily, throughout their home ranges. No matter how large their zoo enclosures, they can't compare to the freedom provided to them by their natural habitats. The same can be said for elephants, polar bears and other large mammals.

2. Animals suffer from abnormal repetitive disorder (ARD).

"This can cover all sorts of strange looking behaviors that are indicative to stress, including pacing, head bobbing, swaying from side to side, rocking, sitting motionless and biting themselves." -Geer. I'm quite sure if you were confined to a living quarters no larger than a one room apartment, with no possibility of parole, you'd be pacing a goddamn hole in the carpet or huddled in a corner somewhere struggling with the I-Gotta-Get-The-Hell-Outta-Here Blues.

3, Surplus animals are killed.

I'm sure many of you remember last year, when a young giraffe named Marius was put down and fed to the lions. A petition with thousands of signatures couldn't save that poor creature. When it comes to direct action, petitions are way down on the activist's ladder. But at least it's doing something.

When surplus animals aren't killed, they're usually "sold to other zoos and dealers, selling surplus animals is a profitable way for zoos to dispose of them, with many winding up at hunting ranches, pet shops, taxidermists, circuses, exotic meat industries, and even research facilities." - Geer. Yes, you read that right - meat industries. Do you remember a while back when you could find lion on the menu at some U.S. (unwanted surplus) restaurants?

4. Animals are still taken from the wild.

"In 2003, the UK government allowed 146 penguins to be captured in the South Atlantic where they had to endure a seven day long boat journey, those who survived this grueling ordeal were then given to a wildlife dealer in South Africa before being sold to zoos in Asia." - Geer.

Poaching is decimating the elephant population. Defenseless calves are on their own, when ivory-craving hunters murder their parents. These little ones are essential to the survival of their endangered species. However, recently, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, as reported by The Guardian captured "several dozen baby elephant for export to zoos in china and possibly the Middle East." - Good.

5. Zoos don't serve conservation or education.

Contrary to the spiel zoos regurgitate to the public, in reality, these institutions' breeding programs are 'primarily in place to maintain captive populations, zoos spending millions on keeping captive animals confined as opposed to fighting to protect natural habitats that are being destroyed at an alarming rate and threatening many endangered species." -Geer

In the news this week, the Dallas Zoo transferred two male lions (brothers) to be replaced by another in an attempt to breed with a six year old lioness. Neither of the brothers were successful in breeding with Lina, the lioness, and zoos know families love seeing those cute cubs and will lay down the green for the privilege to do so.

I'm just scratching at the surface, clawing at the capitalistic crimes of captivity, and i shall be reporting and talking about zoos in the months to follow. In the interim, I highly encourage you to read "Thought to Exist in the Wild" by Derrick Jensen.

And finally, over 400 fish, including a sand tiger shark, were accidentally poisoned to death at the Texas State Aquarium. Mislabelled containers were blamed for a film processing chemical being used during a parasite treatment. Aquariums are just underwater zoos, folks. See above for why they ought to be banned as well.

Oh, and since my alter-ego is a cannibal clown who uses horror to entertain and educate the masses, allow me to pass this on to you good folks. Four years ago, Elvira, the Queen of Horror Hosts, found out that the Georgia Aquarium was planning a Halloween event with loud music rocking the tanks. Elvira dropped a letter off to the aquarium's president stating 'three seperate aquarium employees said that many of the confined wild animals become aggravated and even fight when the music gets pumping and they have no safe room to escape to. This disturbs me worse than Freddy VS Jason." - Michelle Sherrow for PETA. Now I ask you, does this seem like an organization concerned with the animals under their care? I think not.

Until next month. this has been your insatiably hungry, for meat and knowledge, cannibal clown reporting on the kookiness out there in Cookooland.

Geer, Abagail: 5 Reasons You Should Boycott the Zoo

Good, Kate: How Capturing Wild Animals to Stock Zoos Fuels Elephant Extinction