Worth noting that not every older enclosure was "bad." This camel exhibit from the original Central Park Menagerie circa 1900 was perfectly adequate for the time. This style of hoof stock exhibit was still pretty common when I was a kid in the 1960's.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Menagerie Central Park
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B.E.Trumble
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6 comments:
Ben,
It may have been perfectly adequate for the time for camels, but I'll bet you dollars to donuts, that there we many other species of animals that were also kept in it over the years, that it wasn't adequate for. And I'll wager that 3 acres of ankle deep grass may have been more adequate, even back then.
Wade
They were certainly inappropriate for any hoof stock with a strong flight instinct -- unless very well acclimated. Zebras for example. Three acres of grass is always better.
Ben,
How many goofy camels have you been around, that would strike or kick, and hang a leg up in the bars of this adequate exhibit?
Wade
Lots of goofy camels, though I haven't seen one try to kick through a fence when there wasn't a target in range. More apt to spit. I think it's important to judge the past by the standards of the day. If a park exceeded those standards it was progressive. If it failed to meet those standards it was clearly inhumane. Zoo critics associated with antivivisection movements go back to the 19th Century, and certainly by the early 20th Century it was apparent that European style "grottos" for all their problems were better than the barred bear cage I posted elsewhere. But even old styled barred cages weren't necessarily inhumane so long as they were large and efforts were made to include objects and cage furniture to entertain the inhabitants. Too often the "typical" cages of the 19th Century (used well into the 20th Century) were small, and stark, with completely inappropriate substrates. And even the early efforts to "modernize" cat houses etc usually meant adding glass barriers between public areas and the keeper alley in front of the cages rather than drastically rethinking the cage interiors themselves. "Sterile" was the word that came to mind when I worked in a cat house like that. The animals themselves were well treated, well fed, and healthy -- but they were also clearly bored. Too often in some of today's "sanctuaries" and cat "rescue" facilities I don't think they meet the standard we met even twenty-five years ago.
Ben
Ben,
I am talking about a target. And taking a shot, missing and hanging the foot up. Spitting usually comes when you are trying to unhang them. Anti vivisection? You don't think the human race would have caught on eventually? They had no idea what Antarctica, India, South America was like, or looked like, and reading about it in a book, while being exciting, didn't do the world justice like "seeing" it. Not like today with the means of travel and screen media. All they cared about was looking at something they had never seen before, from a far away place that they only imagined at. Yes a mesh/barred enclosure is adequate if it is the same size or bigger then a grotto. Natural surface as apposed to the sterile/sanitary concrete/tile. Absolutely better. And I don't think the "sanctuary's" and "cat rescue" places are interested in educating about the world in which we live. They are also not interested in breeding. They are just interested in keeping something "rescued" as happy and content as they can until it dies. They aren't even an argument in reference to zoo's and how they have improved.
Wade
A video of the Suarez bears on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrVMbJTwXvg
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