A life cut in half. 37 years of exploitation. 37 years as a tourist attraction. 37 years of suffering in an enclosure. And the exploitation seems to have no end. The news that the body of the gorilla Idi Amin is being preserved to be exposed in Belo Horizonte shows that sadism and exploitation of zoos have no limits.

Celebration for the gorilla? Christmas present for the people? Why this? Where is the respect and all the love they say they feel for Idi?

I hope they do not come with the false demagoguery that it is important for the study of the species, as usually is argued when they speak on environmental preservation and education, a theory that in practice is nothing but abuse.

37 years have passed so that Idi finally could rest in peace. Or at least would rest. His soul was freed, but his body will be exploited post mortem, showing the real interest of these centers of psychological torture. It is obvious that the exposure of his imposing body will continue raising funds and financial returns to stakeholders. As they did with so many other animals, and more recently with chimpanzee Alemão, whose skeleton was exhibited in Sorocaba Zoo and is displayed as a trophy. Trophy of an ignoble race, won by humans devoid of wisdom and concern for their fellow man. A title of enormous stupidity.

The death of these individuals is clearly sensed, even more for having survived years under inhospitable conditions, deprived of a social life as nature calls and of minimum conditions of life, and always at the mercy of an ignorant public harassment. The psychiatrist and writer Axel Munthe has said that the cruel wild beast is not the ones behind bars, but the ones who are in front of them. And now, to complete this sentence, we can add that it is also the ones who attend this kind of exhibition. Again the question remains with no answer: what is the logic of a zoo?

Msc. Luiz Fernando Leal Padulla
Professor, PhD in ethology, GAP Project Volunteer

Related news:
https://www.projetogap.org.br/en-US/noticias/Show/4339,gorilla-idi-amin-died-in-anesthesia
https://www.projetogap.org.br/en-US/noticias/Show/4369,alemaos-crime