If there is one thing that I have never been able to figure out in my 51 years of Observing is why some people (most of them Americans) continually put themselves into situations that could cause them harm and then blame everyone else but themselves when it happens. We realize and recognize the danger inherent, but choose to ignore the natural common sense reaction of self preservation and do it anyway. We know we shouldn't drink and drive, but we do. We know we shouldn't sit on an air bag and engage it, but we do. We know we shouldn't ride a bike on a roof, put a crab or lobster near our face or in our pants or jump out of the back of a moving truck, but we do. In my opinion, one thing above all others that should be on everyone's not to do list is get close enough to a wild animal enclosure that one might fall in or at the pinnacle of a brain lapse moment, climb into one, but.... Well, my fellow Observers, I'm sure you see where I'm going.
Of course I'm referring to Harambe, the 17 year old gorilla that was shot last Saturday to rescue a four year old boy that had gotten into his Cincinnati Zoo habitat and with that action lit a social media firestorm. Everyone seems to have an opinion on who's to blame in all this and of course we have no shortage of celebrities chiming in on the matter. As usual Whoopi can't keep quiet on The View or online. She feels that it is the zoo's fault for not having adequate safety measures keeping people out of the exhibits. Ricky Gervais simply has to have a Twitter war with.... everyone and suggests that we should get out the torches and pitchforks and storm the mother of the child's house. We have journalists and bloggers flooding the periodicals, media and internet blaming the mother, blaming the zoo, blaming the child and just as many defending them each respectively. We've heard from Jack Hanna, of TV fame, that the zoo made the right decision and it's not a matter to involve animal rights activism. Shut up Jack. I've seen some of your outtakes. Your about as much of an animal rights activist as Omaha Beef. The officials at the Cincinnati Zoo claim no one is to blame. That sometimes these things happen and they are beyond our control. I'm even sure that if Steve Irwin were still alive he'd be rambling so fast with his opinion that we would hardly be able to understand him, let alone know who he thinks is at fault. All these differing opinions. All this finger pointing. All the assignment of responsibility for this incident and yet they all have one thing in common. They all have it wrong.
If you really want to uncover the true villain in this tragedy you need look no further than the nearest mirror. We are all culpable when incidents like this happen. We all have to bear a certain amount of the blame. Some may eventually carry more of the burden than others in this particular case, but the bad tasting medicine that we all have to choke down is that these creatures are being put in life and death predicaments because of us. These animals didn't ask to go to Cincinnati or the Bronx. They didn't win an all expenses paid lifetime trip to a cage in San Diego on a game show. They were captured, dragged halfway around the world and put there or born into captivity so we could slap down our 50 bucks admission to gawk at them. All in the name of scientific research. Yeah right! When was the last time you saw a nationally acclaimed paper from one of these zoos discovering anything new about any of these animals? Does anyone wonder why they are not contributing to the academic forefront? Maybe it's because any credible zoologist or marine biologist will tell you that the minute you take any species out of their natural environment you cannot truly study their habits because they have been tainted by human influence. It is even difficult for us to learn anything in the wild for the same reason. If the animal is aware of our presence they will conduct themselves differently. You know, like those reality shows with the cameras all over the house. The point is that if any scientist that deals with the animal kingdom tells you otherwise, their degree isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
Some of you may be assuming that I am against the existence of zoos. I assure you, my loyal reader, I'm not. Not against circus acts either. As long as the animals are cared for properly and not mistreated, it's fine by me. You may find it interesting to learn that I was an idealistic, unrealistic animal rights activist in my youth for a lot of years. I was even a vegetarian for a good portion of my life and to this day, still do not eat red meat, but for different reasons now than back then. Now it's for my health. Back then it was wrong to eat animals. Things change. Although I'm still outraged at times over animal cruelty, I see things for what they really are these days and have learned to accept them. The wide eyes of youth have been replaced by the narrow eyes of reality. One thing that I've been educated on is that animals have no rights. Rights for animals have no credibility. Animals are simply subjected to conditions that society as a whole can accept. If the majority wants zoos, there will be zoos. If they want new drugs to save us from illness or they want cosmetics and cleaning products, there will be animal testing. If they want circus acts, there will be circus acts. No amount of picket lines, angry signs or protest rallies will change that fact. Even the victories for animal rights are hollow at the core. The recent end of the elephant act at Ringling Brothers is a perfect example. Activists considered it a major achievement in their war on animal captivity. It wasn't. It was a devised tactic by the circus to give themselves some breathing room with these fanatics. Ok...we'll let the elephants go. Are you happy now?... Good! Now shut up while we make some money off the dancing bears. The problem for the activists is that they're so delusionally absorbed in their self-importance they clearly don't realize they are being patronized.
Now I sense some may have a problem with this line of thinking. That's Ok. I'm not here to agree with everyone. Just let me ask this. If some think that animals do have rights, who is gong to call upon them? The animals? I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think I'd consider some moron getting torn to pieces because he fell into the alligator pit trying to get a better look at the afternoon feeding "invoking" one's rights. As entertaining as it may be for some of us, it doesn't quite fit the criteria for me. We have to acknowledge that no matter what we do, animal "rights" will ultimately be decided upon, dictated and enforced by humans so therefor they have none. And don't hand me that nonsense that we have to because animals have no voice. You know what? They don't need one. The guy that got the crap beat out of him by the panda that wanted his jacket spoke volumes to me.
Rights or no rights, when something like this occurs we have to put up with a variety of people we'd rather not. Such as the animal rights nutcase with his hat on backwards, holding vigil outside the zoo, crying about the 400lb endangered gorilla being shot, on the shoulder of some other loser without a job, that has nothing better to do today besides inform the rest of us, who have to watch it on the news, how wrong the action was. No kidding crybaby. Gorillas are killed everyday for reasons that merit a lot less than saving the life of a child. That's why their endangered Einstein, so get a clue. And while your at it grow a thicker skin, will ya? Crying on national TV over a gorilla will not help your dating prospects. It's probably better that he doesn't breed anyway.
Then we have to listen to all the experts telling us that we forget that they're wild animals. No we don't you idiots! In fact, that's exactly why we lay out a weeks salary to take the family to one of those animal equivalents of a peep show drive through safaris we're all so crazy about. At the end of which we'll complain to anyone who'll listen that the lions weren't frisky enough for our liking, the rhinos were blocking the road and a damn monkey broke our antenna. What do theses "experts" think? That we're paying the neighbors kid to stare at his gerbils for a couple of hours? Yes Marlin Perkins, we know they're wild, but thanks for the heads up though.
For as much as humans attempt to separate themselves from our ecosystem, we are still part of it whether we like it or not. We have become arrogant in our presumption that even though we are mammals, we do not consider ourselves part of the animal kingdom. I starts as early as kindergarten as our children are taught that humans are not animals. How self-righteous we are about our species. How smug. As our contemptuous superiority over "dumb" animals escalates we find ourselves not being content to simply co-exist with nature. We have to capture it, to study it, to conquer it, show dominance over it and eventually put it in a cage and exploit it. Until, once again, an incident like the one in Cincinnati comes along and shows us all exactly where we really rank on the food chain without all our nifty killing toys. Although the people who put themselves in these dangerous positions decidedly get what they deserve, the ones who don't are the animals. Strictly an Observation. If you'll excuse me, When Animals Attack is on.
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