The King is Dead

(photo credit: inquirer.net)

Lolong, the world’s largest crocodile died due to pneumonia brought about by the stress of captivity.

We are then reminded of the issues surrounding Mali, the 36 year old elephant in Manila Zoo who gained world wide attention when British rocker Morissey wrote the Philippine government to ask that the pachyderm be moved to a US sanctuary for aging animals.

The two animals are important to us for several reasons. Lolong provides us an opportunity to observe the reasons for his unprecedented size. His capture however was not just for scientific study, but for public safety.

Rumors in the area abound about missing people believed to have been eaten by either Lolong himself or his kin. Mali, on the other hand is a beloved fixture in the zoo. School children, the author included, since the 70s remember her with fondness. She was after all, the star of the zoo.

But changing views on animal welfare, including legislation that protects all manner of wild and domestic animals have given us pause. Is it wise to incarcerate animals who by their nature should be kept in the wild? Dolphins in Subic who are made to perform are increasingly seen as slaves from a different animal taxonomy, but slaves nevertheless.

Though Mali has been in the zoo since she was 4 years old, and perhaps it isn’t wise to move an aging elephant, would we seek to replace her?

Zoos have been around since about “1500 BC was when Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt decided to build a zoo, and about 500 years later around the year 1000 BC, the Chinese emperor Wen Wang founded the Garden of Intelligence.

This was an enormous zoo that covered about 1,500 acres (607 hect ares). Many small zoos were established between 1,000 and 400 BC by rulers from Northern Africa, India, and China to show power and display wealth.

To study animal and plant life, the ancient Greeks established public zoos. As part of their education, Greek students would visit the zoos. Near the end of the 1,400′s, global exploration brought Europeans to the New World.

When explorers brought strange creatures back with them, it renewed the European’s interest in animals and zoos.” (http://library.thinkquest.org/3378/History.html)

The Zoological and Botanical Gardens, the precursor of the Mehan Gardens in Manila (now the site of the City College of Manila) was at first the Jardin Botanico, established in 1858 by Governor General Fernando Norzagaray, the oldest in Asia.

Under the Americans it was first administered by John Mehan, for whom the park was later named. Mehan transformed the place into a zoo and botanical garden and itself had an elephant, as much beloved as Mali.

Still, perhaps the incarceration of animals must be subject to scrutiny. Interests not just of animal welfare, but also that of human welfare must be considered.

Beyond safety considerations, such as that of Lolong’s carnivorous nature, these animals provide us with a wealth of biological information that teach us about ourselves. They could hold the cure for certain diseases, and so their continued existence is vital to our survival as a species.

By: Atty. Trixie Cruz-Angeles
(Source : PSSST! Centro)





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