How We Look At Animals

(Is this goat saying "I wish I could live in the wild where people can't touch me" or "I love all the free food and hot ladies!")


I'm getting ready to entertain my sister for the weekend so I'm looking at the different attractions around the city. Two of my favorites are the American Museum of Natural History and the Bronx Zoo which is no surprise because they both prominently feature animals. But it's the way they present animals that has me thinking. The Natural History Museum depicts dead animals in incredibly life-like dioramas and the zoo holds live animals in environments nowhere near the size they would have in the wild. Both situations are disturbing but I love them so much. Why? I'm not really sure. I think people should be able to experience all that nature has to offer. Hopefully, by experiencing it they'll have a greater appreciation for it. But it's hard to justify that appreciation by holding animals captive to obtain it. On the other hand, because of zoo breeding programs, species of tigers, pandas and elephants are being kept from extinction. So, I don't know. The Lehigh Valley Zoo used to be known as the Trexler Game Preserve and they had some injured animals on display that couldn't survive in the wild. It ended up being an interesting assortment of animals missing eyes or limbs but it felt good knowing that animals I were viewing weren't taken from a happy life in the wild. They've since expanded to become a full fledged zoo but I wish they would have stayed more a preserve.

Are there better ways to view animals that don't harm them as well?