“Do it for Harambe!”, “Free Tilly!”, “Boycott the circus,” etc. We find no issue with having animals in captivity until something tragic happens.
No one knew that Tilikum was basically being tortured in Sea World until he had killed Dawn Brancheau in front of a crowd in 2010. Then when the documentary, “Blackfish” came out, we quickly learned that Brancheau was not the first person that Tilikum played a role in their death; she was actually the third. He was being used as the sole breeder for all of Seaworld's killer whales. He eventually contracted pneumonia and died in January 2017 at the age of 36. When he was captured at 2 years old, he was already too big to be captured. He never really had a good life. But none of us cared until he killed his trainer. Yet, many whales are still in captivity.
Harambe was just a gorilla in the Cincinnati Zoo until a child fell into his enclosure. He may have not been having such a bad life but he was killed just because of that little kid. He was healthy and probably would have grown rather old in the zoo but someone was not paying attention and a child was put in harm’s way and Harambe lost his life. Instead of talking about the issue of captivity; people have turned Harambe into a joke. “D***s out for Harambe,” “Harambe is daddy,” and many other jokes have been made about him. He has become more of a meme than an animal that was killed too soon.
Now, Ringling Bros. have decided to retire all of their animals and now people care about the torture that they went through. Elephants, lions, and tigers were all forced to perform and go on tour and no one seemed to bat an eye. Now, the animals are being retired and now people are saying, “It is about time.” Why did it take us 145 years to find an issue with the exploitment of the animals? Now the animals get to live out their days without being forced and in turn tortured to perform.
This begins to beg the question, why are we okay with these animals being used for entertainment? Animals, in my opinion, should be viewed in their own habitats, not habitats we have created for them in many other cities. Even the first family goes wild game hunting. Why is this okay? Why is it okay to go into these natural places and kill animals just for fun? I understand a bit more if a person has to kill to survive but not just to do it for fun. Animals are not disposable. We act like if we continue to hunt and kill animals, they will just come back and always be there. We need to treat animals like they are precious because well, they are.
