HerKind.com

This is why I dislike zoos, and in fact, refuse to visit them:

Activist questions zoo safety after lion kills eagle, Canada.com

The thing to know about this incident at The Greater Vancouver Zoo, is that the golden eagle was bred in captivity and the falcon exhibit was being held very close to the lion enclosure when the lion attacked and ate it.

The zoo is saying this is something that happens in nature, but zoos are not natural habitats for the animals that they hold, nor can animals exercise their natural instincts in zoos. So the construct is wrong in the first place and I can only imagine what it does to animals to be so contained. Sure alot of them were rescued, but that really is besides the point to me. I just don't like the idea of zoos, never have, children can learn about animals without visiting a city zoo (even if it has what might be considered an appropriate amount of open space).

As a kid, I visited all the usual animal zoos and exhibits. My dad, a sometime father, thought going to Marine Land or African Lion Safari was a good weekend bonding excursion for us kids. Not so much for me. I hate seeing anything caged or unable to live its own true and natural life. I'm sure my discomfort was mistaken for fear and maybe it was easier to express it that way than to have the guts at a young age to take a stand on such things. Thankfully kids today have more of a voice.

The little girl who's father took the photos of the entire lion/eagle incident was traipsed out in all the media saying how she was sad because the golden eagle was her favourite animal. That's all well and good, and poignant and paper-selling, viewer-friendly stuff. But who's going to explain to her that indeed these things do happen in nature, but that the zoo is hardly nature and that poor bird, born and bred in captivity didn't stand the chance it may have if it had learned, in the wild, how to steer clear of predators.

It's all mixed up in that crazy way of the modern world where things that don't make any sense and that are actually quite cruel, end up being acceptable.