Animal exhibition teaches children wrong lesson
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The article Pets featured at E.L. event for children (SN 7/27) romanticizes the exhibition of exotic animals and supports the dubious claims of educational enrichment through animal exploitation.
Although Lansing’s Preuss Pets might be well-intentioned in their community outreach, the results couldn’t be more dire for the exotic animals who are taken from their natural habitats and labor through arduous transport, or for others who have been bred in captivity, never knowing natural surroundings.
Exhibitions such as the one at Play in the Park do not teach children to appreciate animals as many might claim; instead they show children that animals are objects to be bought and displayed for our pleasure with little regard for their true needs.
Exotic animals are often bought on a whim, leaving their caretakers unable to meet the animal’s needs for day-to-day care, which can become overwhelming since the animal is in such an unnatural environment. Sadly, these animals often suffer from neglect, inadequate care and abuse, even if their caretakers have the best of intentions.
Next year, instead of making the trip down to Lansing to observe frightened animals used as props to sell goods, gather your family around the television and watch one of the many fabulous documentaries on public television and other networks that show exotic animals interacting with their natural settings and performing normal behaviors and routines. And instead of patronizing pet stores selling exotic and designer pets that exacerbate our pet overpopulation crisis, check out your local Humane Society and adopt an animal who needs a loving home.
Mitch Goldsmith
social relations and policy sophomore and acting president of Students Promoting Animal Rights, or SPAR
Commentary
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Spartan Student
(08/02/09 7:51pm)Report
And yet, the majority of people still don’t care. Our cats and dogs live a comfortable life, out birds and fish need not fear predator, and snakes will never go hungry.
WAKE UP SPAR! WE DON’T CARE!
Ryan
(08/02/09 11:09pm)Report
You hit the nail right on the head, Mitch. The only lesson that keeping animals in captivity teaches us is that denying animals their basic needs and desires is somehow acceptable, and that their suffering can be ignored for sake of profit. Keep up the great work, SPAR!
spartan
(08/03/09 8:13am)Report
Honestly, how many times a year do we need to hear from SPAR, with the same tired message.
Chris
(08/03/09 8:49am)Report
Ryan,
I couldn’t agree more! Keeping animals in captivity is unacceptable. You should see the look of suffering in my pet basset hound’s eyes as she slurps up the premium food I provide her; the longing for her “natural habitat” I sense as she snoozes on my pillowtop bed; the agony she experiences as I take her to the local dog parks and force her to play with other dogs…
hmm
(08/03/09 9:34am)Report
I’m going to go ahead and guess that Ryan is the same Ryan who iss peta2’s College Activist Liaison for MSU..so naturally, he would agree with this crap. You guys should probably not comment on your own letter just to gain numbers..that’d be like a reporter interviewing their own friends to get the desired result in a story. Plus, it’s lame.
Ham
(08/03/09 10:43am)Report
You name an animal that doesn’t benefit from being in captivity. All animals in zoo’s are fed n-times a day good square meals. They have doctors to attend to their every need should they get sick and they don’t have predators after them. Not even counting poachers.
Go live in the African Savanna for a month, then I’ll give you the slightest respect. Until then, shut up, Hypocrit.
re:HAM
(08/03/09 2:52pm)Report
Ham wrote “you name an animal that doesn’t benefit from being in captivity” -Great White Shark. The longest one has ever survived in captivity is 137 days. In most cases, they die withing 2 weeks.
Lexi
(08/03/09 4:34pm)Report
I agree that freedom for these animals is preferable. However, the point of the event was to show kids how to care properly for the animals and instill an appreciation for them. Would you rather they grow up hating the creepy crawly critters.
As far as giving preference to dogs and cats, not every landlord allows dogs and/or cats. If everyone spayed and/or neutered their pets, the shelters wouldn’t be overflowing.
Saul
(08/03/09 6:53pm)Report
Ryan,
Please enlighten everyone on how you are able to effectively communicate with an animal, such that you are able to know accurately its needs and desires.
Mitch,
“…others who have been bred in captivity, never knowing natural surroundings.”
If a particular animal were to be born in an environment that is not its “natural surroundings”, implying that it has no knowledge of said “natural surroundings”, how then is it still that animal’s “natural surroundings”?
Why must animals be confined to, and only be able to thrive, in already established “natural surroundings”, and not be able to adapt and naturalize themselves into new environments?
Ally
(08/15/09 2:34pm)Report
You people are all closed minded, over literal, ignorant humans. Maybe you should stop analyzing every word spoken by these organizations like SPAR that are just trying to do some good, and look at the big picture they are trying to get across. Obviously a domestic dog is not the animal they that are addressing here, dumbass.
That being said, this article is a little extreme, given that most of the animals they “display” have been injured in the wild and are now being cared for at a sanctuary.
However most zoos display animals in exhibits that are admittedly way to small, so that people can get a better look at them. Sure the herbivores may be satisfied as long as they have suffient grass or fruits or whatever is their food of choice. But how about the carnivores, who’s strongest insinct is to hunt. All they can do is pace around their cage all day while people gawk at them, waiting for their next meal of raw meat and vitamin supplements to be tossed at them. No exercise or chance to simply exist as their minds and bodies are designed to. Come on people, even America’s prison system is better than that. These animals don’t deserve that kind of life.
BTW Saul, we know animals needs and desires due to studying them in the wild, where they can interact freely without us humans meddling in their lives. Who are we to decide where and how these creatures exist? Shouldn’t it be up to them?