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Good article Marc, Glad you got it published.<br>
<br>
Every zoo in the world should be converted into an animal rescue and
endangered species recovery facility, with, as you suggest, scheduled,
structured, guided observation for students, to educate them about wild
animals and their current struggle with human civilisation.<br>
<br>
peace<br>
<br>
Eric<br>
<br>
marc wrote:
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<h1>Shut down the zoo</h1>
<p><i>The Zoo should be closed, its animals sent to facilities
capable
of caring for them, and the land used for affordable housing</i></p>
<p>By Marc Solomon</p>
<p><b>OPINION</b>
In San Francisco's June 1997 special election, the swells convinced the
voters to float $48 million in bonds to build a "world-class" zoo,
which would entail largely privatizing a public institution, leaving
the city on the hook for liabilities while giving a private nonprofit
the benefits.</p>
<p>The initiative passed — you can't get warmer
or fuzzier than a tiger or a koala — and the San Francisco Zoo,
relinquished to the tutelage of corporate fixer Jim Lazarus, was
largely gifted as another privatized party space for the rich.</p>
<p>The
case might be made that zoos can serve as genetic incubators in the
face of widespread habitat destruction. But the city's precautionary
principle, like the Hippocratic oath, should prevail on us to do no
harm in seeking to prevent extinction.</p>
<p>The record of the privatized Zoo has hardly been a story of
precaution:</p>
<p><b>• </b>In 2000, two already sick koalas were kidnapped from
the Zoo and not returned for two days.</p>
<p><b>•</b> A
12-year-old Siberian tiger, Emily, died in October 2004. Tatiana was
just murdered at age four. Siberian tigers generally live to be 24
years old in captivity.</p>
<p><b>•</b> Two elands,
majestic African antelope, were introduced improperly into close
quarters with an already resident eland at the Zoo, which led to a
spate of deadly eland-on-eland violence and the deaths of the two
newcomers.</p>
<p><b>•</b> Apparently, shoddy attention
to detail hastened the demise of Puddles the hippopotamus in May 2007.
Hippos, like African elephants, thrive in nature preserves located in
their native tropical habitat.</p>
<p>If zoos are to be a
successful component of protecting endangered species, it's paramount
that their conditions not kill the specimens. Perhaps an affiliation
with a major research institution is required to ensure that
professionalism is the order of the day to ward against what appears to
be amateur hour at the zoo.</p>
<p>It's one thing for the swells
to occupy public spaces such as the de Young Museum, City Hall, and the
San Francisco Public Library as edifications to their egos — only
fellow humans are inconvenienced. But for the rich to wrap themselves
in the distinction of being movers and shakers in the San Francisco
Zoological Society and wring glee from the glow of imprisoning animals
in inhospitable conditions is truly pathological.</p>
<p>The Zoo
should be closed, its animals sent to facilities capable of caring for
them, and the land used for affordable housing. The city should replace
the Zoo with an academic partnership with legitimate wildlife
sanctuaries around the world to subsidize conservation, produce video
footage of animals in their natural habitats, and arrange trips to see
wild animals in the wild for San Francisco youths who otherwise could
not afford it.</p>
<p>That would be a true 21st-century, world-class approach to
bringing
the wonder of exotic animals to San Franciscans. </p>
<p><b>Marc Salomon</b></p>
<p><i>Marc Salomon is a member of the SF Green Party County Council.</i></p>
<div>Wednesday January 9, 2008</div>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara</pre>
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