Keep Calm and Leave the Animals Alone

A friend of mine witnessed a young girl climb over a cage in a zoo just so she could pet the tigers. Luckily, she was out without any injuries, but the tigers were left feeling stressed and also a bit too rough to feed.

Louis Dorfman, a animal behaviorist who works at an exotic animal sanctuary that cares for wild animals, is an expert on the goods and bads about human interaction with wild animals. He had repeatedly talked about how you need to be trained in order to interact with wild animals and earn their trust. But there are ways that humans can interact with animals, but it can leave a long-lasting affect on both humans and the species.

http://www.animalequality.net

"Many wrongs have been committed in the attempt to use animals for entertainment....dressing primates in foolish human clothing and having them do undignified and demeaning activities, having exotic cat shows where....the cat is expected to do "tricks" such as leaping through a hoop of fire or balance on a platform while the trainer brandishes a whip or other device....the elephant is trained and controlled with a "bull hook" and required to do inappropriate and unnatural tricks such as sitting on a pedestal or standing on one leg."

I believe with Dorfman on how animals are being abused with being forced to do tricks. Making animals do tricks and forced to become a "prop" is wrong in many ways. The animal is a living creature and deserves to be either out in the wild or being well taken-care of in a zoo or animal sanctuary (Dorfman runs an animal sanctuary for exotic animals). Animals deserve to be treated by what they are, and using them for our own entertainment in a circus can lead to animals being in despair.

"The following inappropriate, and stressful activities....photo shoots with the public in close proximity or holding wild animals, taking wild animals on television shows where they are ridiculed or used only as props for jokes, walking large carnivores on a leash in proximity to the public, and allowing the public to fondle and pet wild animals that are confined."

Leaning back at my first comment, I agree with Dorfman and how these promote stress on the animals. Stress is not healthy for them and can cause them to become out of control. Also, it is highly unsafe for children and other people who have not been trained to interact with these species. If a child were to "pet" the animal in such a way that the creature doesn't like, it could lead to many injuries to the human, and depending on the species that attacked, it could lead to death. Also, just like certain house pets who don't like wearing Halloween costumes or go on a walk, many species could feel humiliated when forced to engage in an activity that they don't enjoy.

"Half a century ago humans were guilty of classing other humans in a subordinate classification and treating them as something to be separated and treated differently....Perhaps better understanding and knowledge of wild animals-particularly wild predators-will allow humans to recognize that the animals' emotional makeup is more similar than different from ours, and the gap....between us is more a result of lack of verbal communications than....substantial differences."
I do agree with most of this passage. Although, I disagree that we need to focus on more how the animals are similar to humans. We, as humans, live differently, eat somewhat differently, and live differently that wild animals. We act differently, most humans don't hunt for food in the forest or lick water to get a drink. I feel as though we should continue to study the differences with wild animals in how the act and what they're like in order for humans to have a better understanding of their diversity. We could figure out the animals that are similar as well, and which families they belong to. Isn't it said that humans evolved from chimps? If that's the case, why are we treated our ancestors like they are props?

Future Research: If humans are using animals as props when they are in our control, how are we affecting their lifestyles in their own habitats?