Fences
Life of Pi argued that zoos aren't cages — they're homes. But maybe some of us belong in the wild. On domestication, mountains, and the urge to roam.
I’ve never been to a zoo of any kind; sometimes I want to, but I hate the idea of putting animals on cages and chains.
I remembered a passage from Life of Pi; it basically said that being caged in a zoo may not be too bad at all. Pi argued that living in the wild is much more distressing than in a zoo; there are constant food shortages, competition, challenging weather, predators, diseases, et cetera.
A zoo — according to him, is a home for the animals. A home in which all their basic needs is tended for; they don’t have to prey on others, or afraid of being preyed. They don’t have to migrate every time the season change, because no matter what the season is, their food will still be there. They don’t have to fight and mark their territory, they already have fences separating them.
Now that is a brilliant argument. Maybe the wild was not their homes after all; maybe they belong in the cage; maybe — if we can measure their happiness, animals in the zoo are happier than those in the wild. Maybe. I’m still not convinced though.
I’m not going to argue with him; I’m certainly not going to win an argument with a boy who had a Bengal tiger for a friend.
I want to see this from the perspective of the animals; because we were animals once.
Before we began domesticating animals, we were being domesticated first. We brought the river to our homes through pipes, and the sun to our bedroom in wires. We grow the grass in our backyard, and the livestock in our stables. We built walls and homes and fortresses; fencing ourselves in and the wild world out.
If we are animals still, then we are those who were born in the zoo. We have no idea how to survive in the wild; we were comfortable — maybe too comfortable. But every now and then, there are exceptions.
There are some of us who were very fond of the wild; there are some of us constantly chasing mountains and running to the oceans; there are some of us who enjoy being in subfreezing temperature or boiling weather; there are some of us who belong in the wild.
Maybe I hate the idea of animals being caged because I don’t want to be caged too. Maybe I want the animals to be free because I too wanted freedom.