Sometimes I forget that Big O posts articles too and often from Counterpunch & 'Information Clearing House' both of whom I enjoy, so they are always challenging or at least interesting . . . . . the fate of animals has often perturbed me. I like animals  . . . at a distance preferably and on my TV screen for preference. I mourn the loss of rhinos and it is clear I am living amongst the last days for creatures like the beloved Elephant that we are slaughtering at a rate of over 70 per day that will see them extinct in my lifetime and our grandchildren will rightly say 'What did YOU do about it Grandad?!'

Zoos I enjoy not so much since going to see the Last Wolf in London Zoo which was one of the saddest experiences of my life and a source of my life long fascination with the creature. I have reoccurring nightmares about Tigers wandering my house at night (Freud anyone?) and a morbid fascination with folks who get into big cat compounds in zoos.

 I enjoyed very much the zoos started by the professional gambler and friend of Lord Lucan, John Aspinall, at both Port Lympne and Howlett's and they left a lasting impression upon me when I visited both. I experienced animals there in something approaching their most natural state that we can manage I feel. I FELT stalked by a male lion there and felt the hairs on my neck stand up literally as I became aware of him and we made eye contact (at feeding time too which was frankly little short of spectacular). I discovered what it is like to have a cheetah go for my child (thanks be to the netting!!) and discovered the pygmy hippo there a favourite animal which I never knew existed until that first day. Nothing will quite prepare you for the sensation of staring into the eyes of a silverback Gorilla at almost 12" away! The place is largely singularly responsible for the reintroduction of Przewalski 's horse to the Russian steppes as I recall. So it's conservation work is beyond doubt. Yet still the creatures are all kept in cages, right? So what happens when they escape from zoos and why do they?

Here is more food for thought . . . . . . 

“Born free and life is worth living / But only worth living / ‘Cause you’re born free / Stay free…” Article by Martha Rosenberg.

In July, a three-year-old male jaguar, Valerio, at New Orleans’ Audubon Zoo escaped and fatally mauled four trapped alpacas, one emu and one fox which were held in other displays. Valerio bit a hole in the steel fencing and zoo officials vowed to install stronger materials.
The fact is, according to Fear of the Animal Planet: the Hidden History of Animal Resistance by Jason Hribal (CounterPunch/AK Press), such animal escapes occur regularly and are always dismissed by the zoo industry as “animals will be animals.” For example, between 1995 and 2000 there were 35 escapes at the Los Angeles Zoo reporters discovered, few publicized. Reasons given for the escapes, when they do hit the news are fabricated and insult the public’s intelligence. For example, Audubon Zoo officials blamed “territorial disputes” for the escape. Never do zoo officials admit the animals do not want to be prisoners.
Compared to other zoo and circus captives, Valerio the jaguar was “lucky.” Had he killed humans he could have met the fate of Topsy the elephant which was electrocuted in front of 1,500 ebullient onlookers for the crime of killing three handlers, one of whom was sadistic.

Between 1995 and 2000 there were 35 escapes at the Los Angeles Zoo… Reasons given for the escapes, when they do hit the news are fabricated and insult the public’s intelligence. For example, Audubon Zoo officials blamed “territorial disputes” for the escape. Never do zoo officials admit the animals do not want to be prisoners.

Dumb animals don’t mind being captives, the zoo and animal entertainment industries tell us despite years of clearly premeditated escapes. Siabu, Sara and Busar, orangutans at the Chafee Zoo in Fresno “spent weeks, maybe months, unraveling a small section of the nylon netting that surrounded their enclosure” until “one of them was finally able to push his body through the hole and make it outside,” writes Hribal.
Kumang, an orangutan at the San Diego Zoo, learned how to ground a hot wire to escape. “She’ll take sticks and pieces of wood and lean them up against the wire so that it is grounded,” explained a trainer. “Then she pulls herself up by using the porcelain insulators on the wire as hand-holds.” Before mastering electricity, Kumang had enlisted another animal to hold a broom handle to support her while she climbed a wall. In another example, a gorilla transverses a huge moat to escape.
The first blow to the “dumb animals don’t mind being captives” is the passion and ingenuity they display to escape incarceration such as the primate who learns to pick locks and orangutans who employ a crowbar and screwdriver to escape. But the second blow to the “dumb animal” theory is the specificity with which incarcerated animals target their abusers. Who, for example, can forget that Tatiana, a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo, ignored other people and other animals trapped in cages to attack the very three people who admitted they were harassing the animal in 2011?

The second blow to the “dumb animal” theory is the specificity with which incarcerated animals target their abusers. Who, for example, can forget that Tatiana, a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo, ignored other people and other animals trapped in cages to attack the very three people who admitted they were harassing the animal in 2011?

Time and time again, Fear of the Animal Planet recounts elephants specifically retaliating against abusive trainers, sparing everyone else around them. “Significantly, zoos and circuses will on occasion admit to this fact: that the relations between animal handlers and elephants are primarily antagonistic, coercive and, often, violent,” Hribal writes. In fact one elephant actually grabs the bull hook, the training stick “meant to inflict pain and submission,” by trainers and used it in an attack.
Zoos are not alone in this abuse writes Hribal who also exposes the suppliers/poachers of animals from the wild for city zoos, roadside zoos, events and movies. For example, Buddha, an orangutan which starred in Clint Eastwood’s “Any Which Way You Can”, was beaten to death with a cane and an axe by a trainer for eating a donut.
Even animal advocates may be shocked at the clear resistance and volition with which animals respond to incarceration detailed in Hribal’s book. But a riveting introduction by CounterPunch editor Jeffery St Clair shows that as late as the 1700s, animals were indeed thought capable of free will and premeditation. When they were involved in misdeeds, they were given trials, lawyers and allowed to have character witnesses testify on their behalf.
As for Valerio, zoo officials hope by now you have forgotten about his “territorial” inspired escape - until the next one happens.

Note: Martha Rosenberg is an investigative health reporter. She is the author of  Born With A Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp The Public Health (Prometheus). The above article was posted at CounterPunch.

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an alternative view here:

Aspinall Foundation