Abolish Zoos

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Divyaraj,
Even today animals and birds are kept in very small cages. The thing is we don't realise that the exotic pets trade is leading to depletion of animals from their original habitat and in many cases pushes the species on the verge of extinction. Our interest in having pets is giving rise to a huge problem. So it is better to stop it.

It is difficult to find out if a pet has been illegally smuggled or bred in this country. So as long as we allow exotic pets, illegal smuggling will continue.

The reason I have advocated handing over these exotic species to the zoos - although zoos have outlived their utilities - because that is one step from taking away all these species away from private ownership and stopping of their breeding and trade. Once these species are in the zoos, the ones which are really globally vulnerable can be monitored, their purity of species ascertained and kept separately for future action.

As a child I used to be very happy banging the cage which held a couple of parakeets. The poor things were terrified. My cousin used to treat them well. However, no amount of love is worth sacrificing your freedom.

I am all for freedom of species in their native habitat.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Divyaraj Shah]

I understand your point sir and i also advocate freedom for all species in their native habitat. Working in wildlife rehab has taught me that one thing amongst many others ! But apart from some zoos the others just don't know nor do they care about any species or animals. For example, we all know that Cheetahs are currently extinct in India and Vulnerable elsewhere still due to lack of know how and care 2 of them died in a zoo in Gujarat along with many marmosets and Nicobar pigeons that were brought in under the zoo exchange programme.

Another thing is that banning something in a country like India is to say the very least totally hopeless according to me. Our court cases are ever pending and our justice system cannot cope with the no of cases every year so at the end of it only the animals suffer. As far as the matter of pets go, yes animals have suffered because of that but banning it will hardly solve the problem because internally birds and animals bred in captivity and hand reared are legally allowed to be kept as pets so say if India bans it - it will only give rise to corruption, ill legal smuggling and no standardized way of keeping them.

Instead if we regulate it we can control it in a better way and all persons involved in handling the animals can be told to keep them nicely.

During my time spent in South Africa at various rehab centers and zoos i learnt that if an animal or bird is going to be kept in captivity life long then its better to tame them and interact with them coz otherwise in many cases animals develop depression and under go severe mental trauma.

Ill be posting an article I have written on Animal Emotions soon here for everybody to read !

As far as this discussion goes - the problem is very complex with a whole lot of variables and there is no easy solution ! One has to consider every scenario
and come up with alternative solutions for each ! Where we have to ban trade we should and where it is better to regulate then we should do that also because ultimately whether in captivity or in wild the welfare of the animals should come first i feel !