Zoos serve an important function in our society. Unlike many Americans, I was blessed to grow up around nature and be constantly surrounded and reminded of it. As Alaskans we are accustomed to this natural beauty given by pure geographical chance, and have seen animals up close that some people may not even realize exist. An urban New Yorker might not even know what a moose looks like, or if they do, realize their immense size and weight. Zoos give people in the city the chance to see some of the things that they may never have had the chance to see, and to briefly escape from their metaphorical concrete jungle into possibly an actual jungle. Conservation and environmental efforts cannot be possible without the public realizing what's at stake, and without zoos, television, and other forms of public education, the average voter won't care or think about protecting the earth. Responsible zoos are a modern phenomenon, in the past it was almost an oxymoron, but a responsible and prudent approach can bring some of the beauty of the world to the public. As we are in the Anthropocene, homo sapiens are the dominant species on this planet. Every corner of this planet is influenced by human activity, and we are entering an era where every corner of the section will have some form of ownership and be part of global capital and production in some form. Multinational corporations and the consumer market in western nations predilection towards having the cheapest product available possible guarantees further extinction of animal and further loss of wilderness areas. Zoos bring these far flung corners of the planet that are touched by neo-colonial economies to life. I read that half of the species on this planet are at risk for extinction, and the only recourse is education and immediate action. Zoos serve a small part in dictating public policy, and when done correctly are geographic unifiers rather than dividers. It's ironic that in order to save animals from certain extinction we have to breed them and lock them in cages, but there are no good options.
Thursday, September 17, 2020
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You bring up a lot of good points that resonate with me. Growing up in Washington, visiting nearby zoos and interacting with the animals was a serious treat for me and my siblings. While I lean more towards spaces of conservation and education compared to zoos these days, I agree with you that in the Anthropocene, where serious habitat destruction and the future of animal lives is a stake, humans will intervene.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that animal conservation and education (or a new type of 'zoo') is still solely for humans?
I was also thinking about the state of zoos in the pandemic, and how they have taken to offering 'virtual' zoo tours. I wonder if this will reach more people in a positive way, or will the impact fall flat because of the 'distance?'
Foucault and Anderson suggest that the practice of zoos spatially articulates the same logics of nature/culture at work that have precisely contributed to the extinction of so many animals and the environment. One of the important points in the Foucault reading is the way in which power validates itself through establishing norms as educational and thereby precisely creating forms of "abnormality" to which it can then establish a rhetoric of rescue, etc. Are there other ways to know animals, perhaps even know them differently, other than capture, enclosure, and isolation from the environment? What educational relationships to animals were possible prior to zoos?
ReplyDeleteIt is also interesting to think about why the connection to animals becomes so important impactful in the era of mass urbanization. Is this not also saying something about social relationships between people? This hyper-desire for 'nature,'--itself a social construct--whether it be in the form of exotic animals for food, entertainment, or education is something we will continue to examine and think through.