Wild Animals

It’s been a horrid winter in Parsley Hollow country.  Four foot snowfalls, freezing rain, ice, slush, frigid temperatures, and icicles big enough to bring down gutters and siding.  On the plus side, it is great for those who love winter sports.  When I was young (heck, even when I was middle-aged), I loved to see the snow, because it meant skiing, both cross-country and downhill, ice skating, sled riding, toboggan chutes, snow people and snowball fights.  Our grandsons don’t usually get much snow, but this year, they had it at Christmas, and their dad built them a sled run.  They got quite a ride.  They also were introduced to skiing and skating, and the oldest one is feeling a bit like Apolo Ohno and/or Bode Miller.  They love it and are hooked.  They told me it was the most fun thing they have ever done—and it will remain so until some new sport comes along.

Our dog Jake loves the winter weather.  Although a Golden Retriever, he very much minds the heat, but as soon as we get a frost, that dog is practically pulling Buz from his chair to go for a walk—a long one.  He always enjoys seeing other animals, but he isn’t much interested in chasing anything except for groundhogs.  He detests groundhogs.  In the winter, should one venture from its hole, Jake takes off, and for such a lazy dog, he covers a lot of ground very quickly.  The groundhog just stands there, watching 110 pound dog bearing down on him, but at the last minute—zip—he’s in his borrow, and Jake is nosing at it, trying to flush him out.  Bill Murray has nothing on Jake.

Recently, we learned of the horrible death of a young orca trainer.  This killer whale has been involved in three deaths, and I think it makes us—or should make us—more aware of wild animals.  A year or so ago, a chimpanzee who had been a woman’s pet for fifteen years mauled the woman’s friend, ripping off her face, blinding her, and destroying her hand and part of her arm.  The owner begged police to shoot the chimp, which she stabbed and hit with a shovel in an attempt to stop the attack, to no avail.  She says the chimp looked at her in bewilderment as if to say, “Why are you doing this?”

Both of these incidents reinforce my beliefs about keeping wild animals as pets.  Christian the Lion makes wonderful television and warm fuzzies, but he IS a male lion.  We simply should not keep wild animals as pets.  Period.  We don’t understand the behavior of wild animals, and we don’t know what will trigger an attack.  Tillikum, the killer whale who grabbed and killed his trainer, has been involved in two other deaths.  We don’t know what goes through an orca’s –or a chimp’s mind—but I bet it has something to do with, “I weigh 12,000 pounds, I am fast and dangerous, and I hate being cooped up in a tank and forced to perform for my supper.”  The chimp may be depressed and unhappy at being a “pet” and not with others of its kind.

The tragedy is that a chimpanzee, a pretty much dwindling species, had to be destroyed after it destroyed a woman’s life.  The orca will be kept segregated in ever smaller tanks: he is thirty years old and it would be impossible to reintroduce him to his natural habitat.  Keiko, a killer whale who was briefly a movie star, escaped near Iceland.  Efforts to get a pod to accept him were futile, and finally, Keiko died of pneumonia. 

I love orcas and dolphins and chimps and all manner of wild animals.  Who is not moved by the power of an enormous whale that performs delicate maneuvers? Who is not captivated by the beauty and majesty of a big cat? Who isn’t enthralled to see how our closest cousins behave?  But we just should let wild animals be wild. 

Some say that keeping gorillas and chimps in zoos is a good thing, because it allows an endangered species, such as the mountain gorilla, to breed and survive.  But—are we going to keep them caged, no matter how nice that enclosure might be, until they die?  Is a killer whale, which can travel at lightning speeds 100 miles a day, doomed to captivity?

I have also heard it said that were it not for SeaWorld, which, let us NOT FORGET, is operating at a huge profit, children would never see dolphins or orcas.  Yeah, that may be.  I am probably never going to actually hear, live, a humpback whale sing, but that is just because we live in different environments under different sets of behavior.

If it were up to me, I would insist that anyone who keeps wild animals must have a strongly enclosed habitat fitting for its species.  That’s a lot of mountain or grassland.  I also believe only certified zoos should be permitted to keeps these creatures, according to a set of rules, not individuals.  I think all the sea parks should not be allowed to breed or capture any more animals.  If it is possible to introduce them to their natural habitat, great.  But it’s pretty hard to tell a 30 year old orca, “OK, bub, you’ve had your food given to you, but the easy life ends.  So long.  See ya’.  Go away.”

Happily, we have domesticated animals for companionship and farm animals to observe and care for.
Isaw a picture of an immense Maine Coon cat, and I want one so much, I practically salivate.I have other cats and a dog, and I am going to pet them, right now.  I won’t get bit or clawed. I will just enjoy loud purring and reassuring dog tail wags.

 

Have an opinion on keeping animals in captivity? Please let me know, here.

 

Very best regards,