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The Rise of Pinjrapoles and the Fall.... : 43
As a result of these poor conditions, many animals, elephants and dolphins included, live much shorter lives in captivity than they typically do in the wild as well, making all of them guilty of not just harming other jīvas but also killing them. Due to these assertions, many philosophers and activists such as have called for the abolition of zoos, however, zoo directors across the world still hold fast to the claims that they are helping animals and that whatever himsā is done to animals by their bondage is justified by the greater good. In the interest of anekāntavāda and in the pursuit of truth, let us examine such claims of the industry one by one.
For the Good of the Animals In direct contrast to the assertions that keeping nonhumans in captivity both deprives them of their liberty and causes them much undue suffering, it has been posited that keeping nonhuman animals in captivity actually protects them from the dangers of the wild, such as natural predators, diseases and poachers that "might be said to limit their freedom” and cause them further suffering in the wild. While it is surely true that keeping animals in captivity helps protect them from certain native diseases, natural predators and poachers that they may encounter in the wild, this argument is incredibly disingenuous and does not at all justify keeping healthy, able-bodied and able-minded wild animals captive. Firstly, nature is far from the world “red in tooth and claw” that is traditionally depicted to audiences by the media, with some ethologists writing entire books and dedicating their entire lives to the wide assortment of pleasures found in the animal kingdom. As Mahāvīra has said, "All beings are fond of themselves, they like pleasure, they hate pain, they shun destruction, they like life and want to live long." While zoos in the past and unfortunately some zoos in the present, have portrayed many predators as sadistic and ruthless in order to up their attendance, life in the wild is typically one full of pleasure for predator and prey animals alike. Portraying nature as being unrealistically harsh does not only do a disservice to zoo-goers who get duped, but also to the animals that are being wrongly stereotyped. As Dr. Balcombe wrote in Pleasurable Kingdom by “reinforcing (this) myth, we perpetuate an one-dimensional perception of the animal kingdom. Cougars are seen only to snarl, snakes to hiss and bats to slaver. Animals experience a range of feelings and motivations, including those associated with reward and pleasure."! For honest reflections on the dishonest ways nonhumans are portrayed in the media, one can read famed wildlife filmmaker' confessional book entitled Shooting in the Wild: An Insider's Account of Making Movies in the Animal Kingdom, where he admits to hiding jelly beans in the entrails a deer's stomach in order to film a tame bear feeding upon her and"2 Nurse or Nemesis? Public Perception of the Australian Grey Nurse Shark, which examines this unfair portrayal regarding sharks.
Though captivity does protect some nonhumans from some native diseases, arguing along these lines is also very misleading as captivity itself thrusts a multitude of harms upon many nonhumans in zoos. Animals in zoos suffer from diseases exotic to them, parasites readily spread from animal to animal, zoonotic diseases spread between humans and nonhumans and problems
