Trip to Coney Island

[death_by_soy]

I normally say it's a bad idea to give zoos and aquariums your patronage because it's essentially a jail for innocent animals. Most don't do well in captivity, and the way many of these animals are obtained is far less than conscionable. Not to mention studies show education, conservation, and scientific research are all pretty bogus excuses for

Comments

[jered]

I like the subtle shadows in the sand picture.

[lorigrrl]

You know, I made the mistake of going to this place called "The Virginia Living Museum", which I assumed would be more like an animal sanctuary and we'd bring binoculars and do some walking around and bird watching, from what the review of it different places said... okay it made me cry. there were animals pacing back and forth, attacking each other, pulling out their fur... there was no space for those animals and the badgers where planning an escape

[death_by_soy]

That's terrible, sorry you had to witness that. Here's a Link where you can report the "sanctuary" if you feel like it.

The really unfortunate thing is that a lot of these places are tended by people who consider themselves "animal lovers".
I recently got into an argument about this w/ a girl training to be a zoo vet- who was chowing down on a cheeseburger at the time, declaring her love for animals- especially her pet parakeet. I dunno, anyone who can keep a bird in a tiny cage it's whole life and call that love has no credibility in my eyes... but unfortunately a lot of people would think that a vet has an animal's best interest at heart. It's really frustrating fighting blatant cruelty as well as having to fight misguided animal lovers as well.

[lorigrrl]

thanks! i'll definitely report it. i was thinking about calling them but i wasn't sure exactly who i'd talk to. the peta main office is only about an hour from the "living museum" and people really tout the living museum as this great place and it's soo educational.... you know what would be more educational? how about watching animals do what they do in nature not in boxes? that's like taking people on prison tours and talking about how educational it is and how much you can learn from watching people... umm... craziness. i'm really excited that my husband is finally listening to me about the importance of being vegan. you can't call yourself an environmentalist and support factory farming and you can't love anything that you feel as though you have dominion over. people just come from this crazy world view that we own everything but we're good because we're not as exploitive as we could be of other species and the earth... this is ridiculous. think about being a little kid and sitting at the dinner table asking "what's chicken? is

[death_by_soy]

Yea, it's hard because people find so many ways to justify their actions. I agree that you can't call yourself an environmentalist unless you're vegan. Just a few weeks ago I spazzed out on a lady running a green festival because she allowed dairy farmers to have a table. Her excuse was that it was "organic", and that she didn't allow meat vendors. I was pisssseed. It was funny because Farm Sanctuary had a table there and I grabbed some of their literature and handed it to the cheese farmers and the lady. Just because something is less evil doesn't make it good.

Then there's people like evolutionary biologists who study animals and their intelligence/ emotional behavior for a living (::cough:: Richard Dawkins) who clearly state that they should be at least vegetarian, but they justify their actions by saying it's society's fault, and it's "natural" to eat other animals. Maybe, but 1) we are the only species capable of having conscious morals, and 2) there is nothing "natural" about factory farming.

[death_by_soy]

oh, and then there's the natural fallacy- we shouldn't even think about deriving our morals from nature in the first place.