Comments | death_by_soy: Does the end ever justify the means?

death_by_soy

Does the end ever justify the means?

Feb 09, 2010 14:20

So I have exchanged my free labor at VBS.TV for free labor at the New York Aquarium. I will no longer bring Santogold her dry cleaning, but instead will bring smelly pinnipeds their frozen fish. I can't wait for the subway rides home when I'm covered in fish guts. I'm going to be working in the animal husbandry department with sea lions and fur ( Read more... )

work

Comments 11

fuggler February 9 2010, 20:13:10 UTC

That would be such a nice sideline. A little bit depressing because of your views, but still better than being someone's bitch. Max and I have been meaning to volunteer at the local animal shelter even though I know it'll make me sad and make me want to adopt 2903829032 cats and dogs. Just think that in the end, you selling out will pay off and you'll get to do what you truly want to do.

death_by_soy February 9 2010, 22:37:11 UTC

Volunteering at animal shelters can be weird and a bit depressing (you can see some of my experiences while I was volunteering at Animal Care and Control under the ac&c tags), but it depends on the shelter (S.F. is a no-kill city) and it's a little different than this situation. At the shelter you're immediately benefitting the animals that would otherwise be locked in a small cage all day by giving them individual care and attention. Plus, you meet a lot of cool people and it's hard to be totally down while playing with puppehs and kittehs.

fuggler February 9 2010, 23:17:06 UTC

The animal shelter we go to in SF is really awesome too. The "condos" are pretty spacious AND they have TVs for the cats, wtf. (They play dvds like catsitter.)

death_by_soy February 9 2010, 23:41:50 UTC

Yea, the ASPCA here is like that- they pipe in music for the animals and conduct/apply a lot of research on enrichment and adoption there. But I ended up volunteering at the city's contract kill shelter which is much more depressing. The poor dogs there hadn't been let out of their cages to go to the bathroom for sometimes up to three days because it was so understaffed/underfunded, and no one else wanted to volunteer there because it's a kill shelter.

lorigrrl February 10 2010, 02:06:31 UTC

Wow, that's really cool. I'm not a huge fan of zoos/aquariums myself but I think you can get a lot out of the experience. The idea of being covered in fish guts makes me a lot queezy though. I hope you have a strong stomach! I've gotten used to biting my tongue about a lot of things... probably a little too used to it.

death_by_soy February 10 2010, 06:18:31 UTC

I honestly have no idea what I will get out of this experience, but at least if I do this and then keep on with my criticism of zoos and aquariums- I can at least say that I experienced it behind the scenes first hand. And yea, being covered in fish guts will be unpleasant- but I used to take the subway home from Animal Care and Control with my pants covered in doggie diarrhea- nothing glamorous about this field...

lorigrrl February 10 2010, 15:01:47 UTC

I hope it works out well. We're always here to listen to you vent when it's hard!

g_na February 10 2010, 04:13:12 UTC

Hi. Congrats on working at the Aquarium. I hope you like the job ( ... )

death_by_soy February 10 2010, 06:11:11 UTC

As far as entertainment- I agree and disagree. Animals should never be captive primarily for the purpose of entertainment, but if an animal is already stuck in captivity for other reasons- training can be a form of behavioral enrichment filling gaps in the animals time budget- and I don't think it matters if this happens in front of an audience- some animals are very sensitive to visitors, but the sea lions don't seem to mind, but I could be wrong.

And education- I want to agree, but at least the studies I've read don't support the notion that much learning goes on. This short piece by Dale Jamieson touches briefly on that topic- but I'm always hopeful of finding articles that say otherwise ( ... )

g_na February 11 2010, 18:57:15 UTC

The Dale Jamison article was interesting, but I feel that coming from an animal rights organization, it may be a bit biased. I am very happy that we are no longer treating animals the way we have been in the past, although there is still vast room for improvement ( ... )

death_by_soy February 11 2010, 21:44:59 UTC

The article was cataloged in an animal rights library, but the author, prof. of environmental studies at NYU, I would hope made some attempt at objectivity- although it is always possible he cherry picks his studies to suit his agenda. But I still haven't found any real positive articles on zoos and education, nothing that to me justifies their existence, but one of the problems is that there hasn't been that many studies on zoos and education conducted. This would actually be a good area to study. I know that humane education by way of animal shelters has really dismal statistics- it's basically ignored although it would have such great potential. I have a class in conservation psychology that starts in five weeks- maybe I'll end up doing my paper in that class on education in zoos and aquariums ( ... )