Loving Animals: Toward a New Animal Advocacy

Four. Where The Wild Things Ought to Be: Sanctuaries, Zoos, and Exotic Pets

THROUGHOUT THIS BOOK, I HAVE ARGUED THAT ANImal advocacy can and should be expanded to embrace affective realms. In some ways, as I’ve suggested, practices are already emerging today that can be seen as examples or illustrations of this new orientation . These include the recent rise in money and time spent with companion animals, as well as the movement to return animals to free-range living on small farms. I have argued that the intense power of love for other animals, whether dog or pig or cat or cow, can be used to expand our ethical thinking about animals. Using the way we feel about certain animals, the way we care for them, identify with them, and love them, will not only enhance our principled deliberation, it can also function to pull more people into the animal advocacy movement. Understanding ourselves as subjects constructed by affect and stories gives us new tools to make a better world for animals. But so far, the only animals I’ve discussed have been domesticated. What would it mean to move this thesis beyond pets and farm animals into the domain of so-called wildlife? What could it mean to love wild animals? While our passions may be shaped by the stories and films that teach us about them, what kinds of attitudes, policies, and treatments best FOUR WHERE THE WILD THINGS OUGHT TO BE Sanctuaries, Zoos, and Exotic Pets 111 serve real, existing wild animals? While many animal rights advocates believe that wild animals are happy only when they are free, many professional animal behaviorists argue that certain animals can flourish in the captivity of established and accredited zoos. (And increasingly, some species may only be able to live in captivity because of the destruction of their habitats.) Can animals really be happy in captivity? And if so, are there any other places in addition to zoos that can provide these animals with a good enough life? To better answer these questions, I spent six months exploring the lives of captive wild animals in North Carolina. By visiting accredited zoos, private owners who keep wild animals as pets, and many different kinds of animal sanctuaries, I was able to get a better sense of what it means to keep a wild animal in captivity. Over those six months, I met wolves and wolf hybrids, tigers, lions, servals, caracals, bobcats, bears, small primates, and a variety of other wild animals in settings such as public zoos, urban people’s living rooms, huge well-funded rural animal compounds, and private menageries in suburban backyards. As a result of my travels, I also started volunteering at one local big-cat sanctuary, and, at the time of this writing, have spent about thirty hours with speci fic big cats in that facility. While I am not an ethologist or animal behaviorist, I want to put forth a controversial thesis that extends the argument of this book into the realm of wild animals: that some animals are generally better off when they are enmeshed with and connected to humans who work with them, advocate for their well-being, and love them. By this I do not mean that every species on earth can or should be domesticated or brought into human care. Nor do I think animals that live in cages are happy just because they are alive. Rather, what I do mean by this proposal is this: given the shrinking space of the undeveloped “wild” world, those animals that can learn to live in connection with humans may have the best chance for survival. In other words, I will suggest that in contradistinction to both the animal rightists’ claim that wild animals should exist only in the wild, and the professional zookeepers’ claim that captive wild animals should only be kept in zoos, many so-called wild animals can flourish , be happy, and be safe in a wide variety of settings.The human species is overtaking the earth at an astounding rate. Pragmatically speaking, 112 WHERE THE WILD THINGS OUGHT TO BE then, those animals that stand the best chance for long-term survival are those that can develop some rudimentary bonds of relationship with us. My hope is that all animals, including wild ones, can become their own advocates through the personal experiences humans share with them. My experiences of one particular weekend helped me crystallize this thesis regarding wild...