THE GUANTANAMO OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM

by PEDRO POZAS TERRADOS
Executive Director Proyecto Gran Simio (GAP Spain) / President, GAP Project International

Great Ape Project International, which works with the aim of getting the great apes’ basic rights, the end of the captivity of non-human living beings and the closing of shows concerning cetaceans, jailed in bathtubs and forced to perform several activities that have nothing to do with their natural behaviour, publically denounces many of the incidents that take place in zoos due to, on the one hand, lack of security, and, on the other hand, the way captivated animals are being treated, since they are considered to be just removable things which are only used for specific interests.

We are talking about cases like the recent death of the gorilla Harambe, in Cincinnati Zoo (Ohio, United States of America), who was shot by the zoo workers when a four year-old child fell into a trench and was saved and taken into safe place by Harambe. The ape was shot in case he attacked the child, which was rather improbable; cases like the shooting of two lions in Santiago Zoo, in Chile, when a naked man walked inside the lions’ cage in order to commit suicide; cases like the death of a female worker by a tiger in Palm Beach Zoo from Miami (Florida, United States of America); cases like the death of many animals from Mendoza Zoo, in Argentina, although the cause of their death remains unknown after a conflict between vets and government; cases like the four dead chimpanzees and another seriously injured one in Spain after having run away. Two of them were murdered in Sa Coma Zoo, in Majorca – one shot, the other one drown –, whereas the other two were shot and the fifth one injured by the Security Forces from La Lajita “Oasis Park” Zoo, in Fuerteventura, after the three chimpanzees ran away; or cases like the murder of eight wolves, which was committed in Carbarceno Zoo, in Cantabria, during the night of the 28^th of November, 2014, due to “conservationist” reasons; or cases like the intentional and unjustified death of an Asiatic baby antelope due to lack of space and commodities inside the facilities of Barcelona Zoo – this kind of acts have been spread worldwide in many zoos and have adopted the term “culling” –; cases like Copenhagen Zoo, where a healthy giraffe was murdered, carved up and thrown to the lions afterwards in front of the public; cases like the trainer Alexis Martínez, who was killed by an orca named “Keto” in Loro Parque, Tenerife, during some trainings; cases like great apes and other animals who are frequently moved during exchanges and donations between zoos, thus breaking familiar bonds, and only in order to maintain an unreal conservation or to reproduce them. All of those cases suggest there is little interest in keeping those animals and a big business behind that conservationist, fake image that kind of facilities want to show.

The lack of security in several zoos, as well as the lack of protocols for immediate action against possible escapes, almost all of them caused by a human mistake or by useless activities in catastrophic emergencies, such as earthquakes, fires or floods, and all of them tied to an unnecessary captivity of jailed animals in usually narrow spaces, is a clear sign of a past which must not continue. Taking children to zoos and showing them animals that are outside their ecological niche, or sad, or with many stereotypes that suggest they are psychologically sick, is no way of educating them. Animals’ repetitive movements, along with their non-stopping walks, show us how sick they are. There are numerous ways to teach children what animals are like nowadays, and specially to show them the respect they reserve. We should not bring them to places where animals find themselves captive, sad, desperate… that is a torture which must be eradicated by the human being for the benefit of life.

On the other hand, we strongly regret Jane Goodall’s support to zoos, such as the declarations which were made in December, 2015, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she pointed out zoos have an extremely important role when it comes to awareness and education of many species, “especially for the youngest”. Her regular visits to zoos that are looking forward to her visit in order to show citizens how terrifically they take care of their animals do not benefit the fight for all animals’ rights. Her words are still tied to the past, supporting captivity and suffering of animas from both zoos and entertaining shows which are held with various species, especially with dolphins and orcas.

For Great Ape Project, Jane Goodall’s support to captivity, as well as her visits to zoos, is a terrible mistake that must be immediately solved. There are nowadays thousands of associations in the world aimed to defend animals that are asking for precisely the opposite. Many philosophical treatises, scientific reports and conferences at universities aimed at protecting animals are now calling for the closing of zoos.

“The youngest children might see a video displaying dinosaurs and another one displaying elephants, and still, they would not be able to see the difference between an extinguished animal and a real one”, said Goodall in a press conference. “Watching an elephant in real time and feeling it in every way isn’t the same as watching it on a screen”. “Animals are kept under beneficial conditions; they have shelter in order not to be seen, for instance, and hence, zoos are still very interesting places”. These are hurting words that benefit the BUSINESS of the zoos,  including the sentence of thousands of animals’ and great apes’ captivity in cages, mostly under bad conditions, sicknesses and depressions, in a context in which running away leads to death, where they are treated as if they were just things, and not as beings who have feelings and rights. Words like Jane Goodall’s shatter many people’s work in fighting to put an end to this savagery of the 21^st century.

For Great Ape Project, Jane Goodall must be recycled and, since she signed and took part on the “Great Ape Project” book about fundamental rights of great apes to be free, safe and alive, along with many scientists like Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri, she must keep her promise and fight against animals’ captivity. We still do not understand why she supports that, and hope Dr. Goodall changes her mind, for her opinion concerning the conservation of the wildlife is of great value.

The zoos’ business must not be supported, and cages that are being empty must remain that way for ever as a sign of a past and a beginning of a new era to protect animals, full of suggestions in which zoos or shows with animals that only dignify human societies are not an option, where we do not use animals as objects for entertainment, fun or shows. A judge’s recent sentence when she declared “non-human person” an orang-utan named Sandra, who finds herself captive in Palermo Zoo from Buenos Aires, is a good example of that.

Zoos, or at least the zoos we know, must no longer exist. They are a den of a previous century, where jails, chains and silence were a single currency, and where exploitation, along with economic interests, prevails. An advanced society must be aware that cages are no funny or cultural places, but a den and torture bars that only destroy human beings’ freedom for the benefit of humans, thus showing their selfishness and supremacy of a species that rules over the other ones.

How can we call “education” to the act of showing our children jailed animals behind oxidized iron bars, chained or trapped inside narrow spaces in some cases? How could be educational to see a polar bear outside its natural habitat and in a narrow space? Or to see an elephant with just a few meters of space and with repetitive behaviours that suggest it is sick, only to feel them in every way, just as Jane Goodall says? Parents must be aware that their children should not be brought there until those places have been well structured and real, educational projects that seek all beings’ wellness are set up.

Our society must call for the replacement of these spaces with accurate places for teaching. There is no need to watch a polar bear or a chimpanzee to know they actually exist. There is nowadays a lot of media to show us those habitats without extracting their inhabitants for our benefit.

Some scientists who study primates should be the first to fight against this kind of exploitation, but instead, they benefit themselves and keep quiet. Frans de Wall is the clearest example, who writes books at the expense of the observation of bonobos or chimpanzees in a zoo. They have an office in a high zone of the building, earning money because of their publications at the expense of the slavery of great apes.

We had a great scientist in Spain who studied primates. He was not well-known for his work though, but for bringing Snowflake into Barcelona Zoo. He was not awarded the Prince of Asturias Award he deserved far more than Jane Goodall did. He was the first to find out chimpanzees actually used tools. He was a great man who had not been a prophet on his own country, but left us a clear message in his books where he refers to great apes and other animals: “The grotesque exhibitions of these disguised animals should not be tolerated, nor should their commercial exploitation… it would even be necessary to re-consider the convenience of exhibiting them in zoos… I am sure we will be severely judged in a few years for this behaviour which might possibly be justified in some way, less than two hundred years ago, with the white men, who enslaved their black brothers and sold them to American planters, just as if they were animals”.

On the other hand, great apes should not be jailed in zoos, both for ethical reasons and for being part of our family, and therefore, they should be moved into sanctuaries where they can live in peace, free of chains and of suffering from being eternally caged in very narrow spaces for the benefit of humans.

This organization would like to finish this message with a clear and convincing affirmation: “We, Great Ape Project International, along with the Delegation of other countries, are against the captivity of animals in so-called ‘zoos’, where they are treated like just commercial merchandise, where they are not aware that they are living beings who have feelings, who suffer, who cry, who are sick and depressed, surrounded by bars and lacking freedom. Our current education should not be tied to the chains of suffering of living beings just to find joy in watching them in neither an anti-natural state nor adapted to their own ecosystem. The many incidents regarding deaths of animals and people in zoos must make us see there are safer and more respectful ways to interact with the fauna of a planet, without using constant slavery of living beings who suffer, just like we do, and who, especially regarding great apes, belong in our own family. Zoos are torture facilities from the past that should not exist in a modernized and civilized era. We, on behalf of Great Ape Project, pay homage to the gorilla Harambe, who was shot for getting a child out of a trench, as well as other animals and great apes who have been murdered by people’s irresponsibility, throwing their life away so that we humans can enjoy a Sunday afternoon watching them surrounded by bars, far from being free”, says Pedro Pozas Terrados, International President of Great Ape Project.

HERE THE INFORMATIVE LINKS OF THE REFERENCES WE HAVE USED THROUGH THIS MESSAGE:

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