When I was about five years old my family took a trip to a local zoo, this was the first time that I had ever been to one. From what I could remember in my young mind at the time, I was astounded by the various environments that the zoo provided, and I enjoyed seeing the variations of animals. At the end of the visit, my parents brought me to the gift shop and let me pick out one stuffed animal to take home. I immediately went towards the tiger section and picked out a fluffy Bengal Tiger toy. From that moment on I became a lover of tigers and got the nick name "Tiger kid" for the rest of my life.
As my life continued I still had a keen interest in tigers. I would read books about them, learn about how they live, and bawl my eyes out at the end of the movie Two Brothers. Even at a young age I realized that tigers are an endangered species. I wanted to do everything I could to make sure they stayed alive, I sent in money to groups that would prevent poachers and deforestation. I would save this money in the hopes that tigers will still roam the earth when it is my time to leave it. Back then, and even a bit now, it has always been a dream job of mine to start a tiger sanctuary to protect them from the dangers of evil human interactions.
In recent news, an endangered silver-back gorilla named Harambe was put-down due to the intentions of a young boy's life who fell into the pit at Cincinati Zoo. Now this article isn't about the poor parental choices made by the child's parents, but rather the interaction between human and nature. This story is yet another example of how we as humans abuse the gift of nature to our own personal entertainment. Many report that the gorilla Harambe showed no intentions of harming the child who had fell into the exhibit, but began to drag him around when spectators were screaming at the animal. Obviously being the spur of the moment, bystanders couldn't think to do the right thing by remaining calm and letting the zookeepers do the work. This could have possibly led to the silver-back being peaceful and the child being rescued with no harm done.
But in the end an animal whose sole purpose was to give us humans entertainment was killed by a human... due to the actions of another human...
As an advocate of preserving the lives of endangered species to hope they grow back in numbers, reading this story was hard to take in. All across the United States, the world even, there are countless zoos, traveling circuses, and even regular houses with people who own exotic animals for personal entertainment. Many of these are taking animals out of their intended habitats, and are forcing them to perform for the entertainment of humans and if they do not they are trained in horrid conditions or even put to death.
I try my best to do research before visiting a zoo or a circus to make sure the animals there are treated well, or are being saved from a hostile environment. Some of these locations are actually better for the animal, as they are being saved from an area heavy in deforestation or poachers. Zoos or carnivals that take creatures from habitats where the conditions were fine is where we go wrong in our choices as human beings. Why take animals out of a safe environment from human interactions and place them into a possible harmful environment with more negative human interactions?
Endangered species have their name for a reason, they are InDanger from us, in most situations humans are the cause of endangerment in the animal kingdom. We need to come to terms that we are no longer in danger of animals and nature. We are the danger.
