If I Ran the Zoo

The Philadelphia Zoo is celebrating its 150th birthday this year and amidst all the hoopla, there is a sobering commentary from Marianne Bessey that exposes another side of the story. It seems that while the zoo has spent some big bucks recently to upgrade some of its major exhibits, "many of the zoo's inhabitants remains confined to crumbling, Depression-era structures."

It is important to note that Ms. Bessey is not calling for the demise of the zoo. Rather, she is suggesting that the zoo needs to take care of what it already has before adding any more new exhibits, animals or visitor amenities, especially considering the fact that millions of city tax dollars are spent on zoo services like water, trash collection and even capital expenditures.

Zoos are hot topics in the academic field of animal studies. Scholars have investigated everything from the history of zoos to the history of what it means to "keep" animals and, as you might expect, opinions as to what is best are all over the place. What I think is important about Ms. Bessey's piece is the fact that she is advocating cleaning up what already exists--which I believe, is a commendable, if not popular, effort.

As Bessey herself notes, the Philadelphia Zoo is a hugely popular "tradition," and criticizing it is about "as popular as root canal." But her observations of some animals still being kept in dark and often cramped cages, are correct. The saddest footnote to this is the fact that even in the new, state-of-the-art "Big Cats" exhibit, the big cats take turns rotating into the spacious outdoor environment. When it is not their turn, many cats are still confined to indoor cages.

At the heart of the matter are the elephants, which remain a hot button issue for animal welfare advocates. The zoo apparently is planning on breeding two of its older elephants (an event that in itself can be considered dangerous, considering their advanced years) and is awaiting the construction of a breeding facility outside Pittsburgh. In Ms. Bessey's opinion, "it's unconscionable that the zoo refused to send the elephants to a wonderful sanctuary that offered to take them in at no charge years ago."

In this era of belt tightening, many zoos are being forced to close altogether. I hope that Bessey's arguments fall on receptive ears, especially those of city officials who are taking long, hard looks at how tax dollars are being allocated. If those dollars set aside for the zoo were to be devoted to caring for what already exists, rather than adding more, it would be a prudent example of animal conservation, one of the zoo's missions.