I’m going to go ape on this one.
Probably like most people in Wellington, I felt a bit sick when the Zoo announced last week the list of animals they would immediately shoot dead if they felt human lives were at risk. They say the reason for having such a hit list is to satisfy the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Well, all I can say is, I hope the Ministry is satisfied. I for one am not. There’s something so not right about it. There’s actually a helluva lot not right about it, but I can’t rattle the cage about everything, so I will confine myself to two key points.
The first point is that the animals named on the list for instant execution are noble, spectacular creatures who should be regarded as ‘honoured guests’ in our city. They didn’t ask to come here. We brought them here and have always tried to care for them and respect them. And boy, do they need respect... In other countries, many of these creatures have been hunted and butchered to the brink of extinction. Even gorillas, for example, are shot and their prized feet chopped off by poachers.
A Zoo is not a commercial freak show. Nor is it a prison of some kind where the inmates have been sentenced to preventive detention. The animals have committed no crime. If they’ve done anything ‘wrong’, it is simply that they have managed to do what humans have failed to do: adapt properly, harmoniously, to their earthly environment. Ideally, a Zoo represents a bond, a partnership, a love affair with the natural world. Succeeding in this task requires us to act with imagination. And we must speak for the animals because they can’t speak for themselves. Under no circumstance should they ever be shot. And once the decision ‘never to shoot’ has been made then it’s possible to explore realistic, other, protections for human (and animal) safety.
The second point is there are many alternatives to the firing squad. Yes, I know, I know, some will say what if there was an earthquake and cages opened and the chimps with their hairy arms got out and headed into town...Or what would happen if a cougar got into a crowded bar at Courtenay Place...
Well, all I’d say is that you don’t have to immediately look to your nearerst AK-47 for an answer. I’d recommend we simply look to Wellington history. We have throughout our history kept imported animals under quarantine on Somes Island. That is the ideal place, a better location, to house potentially dangerous animals like chimps and lions. And obviously, a zoo there would give visitors the chance to journey across the waters of Wellington Harbour. In a real emergency, such as when cage doors spring open during an earthquake, the animals might get out but they’d never leave the island.
So don’t put down the animals. Put down your guns.
Probably like most people in Wellington, I felt a bit sick when the Zoo announced last week the list of animals they would immediately shoot dead if they felt human lives were at risk. They say the reason for having such a hit list is to satisfy the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Well, all I can say is, I hope the Ministry is satisfied. I for one am not. There’s something so not right about it. There’s actually a helluva lot not right about it, but I can’t rattle the cage about everything, so I will confine myself to two key points.
The first point is that the animals named on the list for instant execution are noble, spectacular creatures who should be regarded as ‘honoured guests’ in our city. They didn’t ask to come here. We brought them here and have always tried to care for them and respect them. And boy, do they need respect... In other countries, many of these creatures have been hunted and butchered to the brink of extinction. Even gorillas, for example, are shot and their prized feet chopped off by poachers.
A Zoo is not a commercial freak show. Nor is it a prison of some kind where the inmates have been sentenced to preventive detention. The animals have committed no crime. If they’ve done anything ‘wrong’, it is simply that they have managed to do what humans have failed to do: adapt properly, harmoniously, to their earthly environment. Ideally, a Zoo represents a bond, a partnership, a love affair with the natural world. Succeeding in this task requires us to act with imagination. And we must speak for the animals because they can’t speak for themselves. Under no circumstance should they ever be shot. And once the decision ‘never to shoot’ has been made then it’s possible to explore realistic, other, protections for human (and animal) safety.
The second point is there are many alternatives to the firing squad. Yes, I know, I know, some will say what if there was an earthquake and cages opened and the chimps with their hairy arms got out and headed into town...Or what would happen if a cougar got into a crowded bar at Courtenay Place...
Well, all I’d say is that you don’t have to immediately look to your nearerst AK-47 for an answer. I’d recommend we simply look to Wellington history. We have throughout our history kept imported animals under quarantine on Somes Island. That is the ideal place, a better location, to house potentially dangerous animals like chimps and lions. And obviously, a zoo there would give visitors the chance to journey across the waters of Wellington Harbour. In a real emergency, such as when cage doors spring open during an earthquake, the animals might get out but they’d never leave the island.
So don’t put down the animals. Put down your guns.
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