Zoos are Cruel and They Should be Abolished

By Abu Hamza

Cruelty is everywhere, and everyone has stood witness to cruelty at some point in their lives. If you haven’t seen it in real life, you must have seen it in a movie or some other program. We even hear about it almost daily in local and international news when people are murdered and denied their rights.

With human rights violations alone being a major concern, we must realize that there are also those fellow beings, such as cats and dogs, which literally do not have a voice to speak up against the untold cruelty inflicted upon them through both, vindictive and deliberate acts, as well as sheer ignorance.

Recently, when conducting my own little survey regarding the treatment of animals at home and at zoos (Karachi and Lahore Zoos), I discovered that even educated people in our society are unaware of what actions against an animal can be termed ‘cruel’. They apparently believe that animals in a zoo is great entertainment and also educational for their children. Well, of course, but at what cost, I ask?

Unfortunately, the general mindset of believing that ‘zoos are cool places to take your children’ cuts across all divisions of our society; in fact, it even cuts across societies worldwide.

Fortunately, there is a minority of people working for animal rights or rescuing animals, but this is completely offset by the lack of awareness. Our education has little room for educating children in these important matters.

Most people somehow have this notion that zoos take care of animals that would otherwise be harmed in their natural habitat. Sure, nature has its course, but to cage animals in an unnatural environment, in small filthy cages, is ludicrous.

Can you imagine what it must like for a bear or a tiger to be restricted to a tiny space when these animals are instinctive prowlers? They need space to run and stretch their bodies, and they need to feel soil under their paws instead of hard concrete that’s unhealthy for them.

Put yourself in their shoes, proverbially, and just picture how you would feel if your child is snatched from you at a young age and caged for life. Wouldn’t you and your child both be traumatized? Yes, animals do have feelings and desires, and there’s plenty of authentic scientific data to back that up.

The point is; you can’t possibly cage these beautiful animals and believe that they are having a better life, safe from predators. How do you feel when violence breaks out in your city and you have to stay indoors?

Another consideration to make is the awful conditions the poor creatures are compelled to live in; they do not have enough clean water to drink; they are not given a bath regularly; they are not inoculated; they are not fed properly; they are at the mercy of harsh environmental conditions that do not suit them; and, they are tormented frequently by zoo keepers and visitors and are driven mad.

Many otherwise healthy animals with thick fur land up at zoos like our Karachi zoo, and end up appearing rather scruffy and disheveled in s short span of time. They lose their healthy coat of fur because of unhygienic conditions, skin disease, lack of water and malnutrition. As a result, they look miserable, feel even worse and are quite lethargic until they are provoked get agitated from time to time.

If any of my readers can’t understand the point I am trying to make all this time, consider the following: you take a healthy animal out of its natural and free habitat, snatch it away from its troop, and lock it up in a place that is harsh and uncaring, nothing but solitary confinement.

What if you were snatched out of your society, and locked away some place with no fellow being to communicate with? And all this suffering isn’t even near to the other torments these poor animals experience.

Zoo owners inflict untold levels of pain on animals, sometimes even in plain sight of visitors. Probing and poking them to make them move for the sake of entertainment is not fair.

How would you like to be poked just so you’d move around after you have to tolerate the blistering heat in summer or a bitter winter’s cold, with little food and water and disgusting conditions?

Have you ever noticed animals on a wild life show being filmed in their habitat? Don’t they look athletic with their fur gleaming in sunlight? Don’t they play with their cubs and hunt in the wild to nourish their beautiful bodies that nature has bestowed them with? Surely, you can see the way zoo animals are kept.

Sadly, it’s not just our zoos and circuses where we get to witness animal cruelty, but our society seems to have imported a new ill, SeaWorld. As fascinating as you might think it is to watch dolphins, otters and orcas performing, bear in mind that it is all a gimmick.

Do you know that these animals are starved into performance?

Yes, they are not fed, and that’s why they perform their acrobats, out of sheer desperation to catch a morsel high in the air.

SeaWorld claims to provide a natural habitat to these enslaved creatures, but you should do some research and have a look at what the reality is for both zoos and SeaWorld. Have a look at some of the injuries these poor animals suffer too.

While my write-up here was strictly to focus on the flawed concept of zoos, I will write again on the cruelty inflicted on SeaWorld creatures. I appeal to everyone to realize the immense physical and psychological cruelty that is inflicted on animals in zoos, and therefore, to boycott this insane practice. We must change our society now, and not carry on with the sick practice of tormenting ALLAH’s innocent creatures.

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