For a Good Time, Visit Animal Prison

Only amusement and water parks were preferable to the zoo as a child. The pure amazement and wonder of lifeforms from far off places provided hours of joy and cemented many memories of family and fun. And then I grew up. As a teenager, I visited the zoo one, last time. It horrified me. All I saw was withering beings trapped in cages. I couldn't believe these places were legal. The facilities were not all dilapidated and it was clear the staff was doing their best but the idea of incarcerating the innocent for our amusement bothered me.

Both extremes lack subtly but are equally true. The human race, as a matter of priority, must consider the longevity of this institution. Confining these individuals is wrong. Imagine some alien race doing this to us. Imagine alien parents taking their alien offspring to the human zoo. There, the great lessons of our ugly past and present are placed on full display. The child watches in wonder as it beholds an array of humans from different ages, captured, held, and made to enact some bit of history like puppets in a play, only the humans don't know they are in a Matrix-style virtual-reality. The allegory is a perfect horror story with endless possibilities of torture and evil. What we are doing is not as extreme but certainly in the same vain. We go to zoos to virtually taste these creatures' complex, authentic reality. But the truth is that despite appearances, the wall behind them is concrete, not a lush forest, dense jungle, or vast desert.

Fact: humanity disintegrates natural habitats. Science deems this the Holocene or Human Era as we are the dominate force of nature. The choices we make shape the world. As long as we believe commerce is a higher priority than sustainability, zoos serve a purpose. Finding awe, making a connection, learning respect, and understanding the necessities of life means future generations may use their memories of the zoo to mend our course in time to save these critical species we find so wonderful.

Instead of seeing a visit as solely 'fun,' we have the opportunity to ramp-up change with a focus on education. Until we find long-term balance with nature, zoos have their place. And when we finally deem them illegal, it will be because we will have far better ways to appreciate life on Earth. How? Simple, instead of bringing the Savannah to us, we will bring the world to the Savannah. How? Who knows. However we accomplish this, it must be sustainable (maybe flying-cars; in fact, weren't we also promised smart-jackets, holographic-billboards, self-tying shoes, and hover-boards by now).

Read a related article about the stewardship of dogs at JaxonCohen.blogspot.com