Excalibur editorial, July, 2008, on Giraffe killing

[Guest guest]

SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY

 

 

 

A recent news item(Giraffe dies in road accident, The Telegraph, 25th May,

2008) caused a lot of concern and justifiably so. A giraffe, whose neck

struck a roadside pole on the way from Alipore Zoo in Kolkata to Nandankanan

Zoo in Bhubaneshwar died after waiting for more than 12 hours as officials

could not decide whether to carry on or to return. This incident invited a

lot of hue and cry in its wake and caused a lot of genuine anguish for

wildlife and animal lovers across the world.

 

What added insult to injury however was the role of the Central

Zoo Authority in tackling this incident. Very far from instituting an

inquiry into the cause of death and needless suffering of a sentient animal,

the Central Zoo Authority Member Secretary went on record saying that the

apex zoo body of India would not investigate the matter since the giraffe is

an exotic animal. This stance seems strange and shocking to say the least.

What difference does it make to the suffering of a creature if it is exotic

or indigenous? And since the Central Zoo Authority is responsible for the

maintenance and dealings of all Indian zoos, does the Giraffe death not come

under the aegis of their administration?

 

It is also notable that both Alipore Zoo and Nandankanan Zoo indulged in

a game of crude brinkmanship to evade responsibility for the death of the

Giraffe. The stance of both these institutions in this case of animal

cruelty smacks of ignorance and arrogance and should be censured by the

Central Zoo Authority. And if the Central Zoo Authority will not act for zoo

animals, then who will?

 

These are hard questions that must be answered. Besides the term

'exotic' carries different hues of meaning and should not be thrown about

willy –nilly to suit one's inaction. What exactly is the significance of the

term exotic ? The World Zoo Conservation Strategy of 1993, published by the

Chicago Zoological Society elaborates: " Zoos are usually associated with

exotic animals, and exotic is usually thought of as being far away, strange,

mysterious, or rare. To some extent this gives zoos the image of the earlier

curiosity museums: collectors of strange life forms from all different parts

of the world. It may be that zoos were indeed at one time collectors of

curiosities, but if so this time is most certainly past.

 

The word exotic is Greek in origin, and literally means

" originating from out of hearing range " (ex = out, otikos = hear). A

zoologist uses this word to indicate animals that do not live in his/her

country or faunal region because the natural range of the species is

elsewhere in the world. Exotic thus has nothing to do with beauty, ugliness,

mysteriousness, or strangeness, but only with the geographic origin of an

animal. The common European wood pigeon would be exotic to an Australian

zoologist, and a typical South American vole is exotic to a European

zoologist. Contrarily, the attractive barn owl, a bird found in almost all

parts of the world, would not be exotic to many zoologists. Exotic is thus a

relative term, meaning different animals to zoologists in different parts of

the world.

 

Whether an animal is exotic is not really relevant to the

average zoo visitor, and certainly is not to most of the city dwellers that

constitute the majority of zoo visitors. For these visitors, most of the

animals in their own country are outside of their normal experience. These

visitors, in contrast to zoologists, rarely or never come in to contact with

wild animals that live in their own country, much less on the other side of

the world. The American bison, rattlesnake, and hummingbird are just as

exotic to a citizen of New York City as is the golden lion tamarin of South

America. The golden lion tamarin, macaw, and giant anteater are just as

exotic to the average Sao Paulo inhabitant as to someone in Amsterdam,

Colombo, or Sydney.

 

It comes down to the fact that zoos exhibit animals that the

public is not used to seeing. The difference between native and exotic is of

minor importance. Both are just as important in conveying a conservation

message: the native animals illustrate the need to conserve local

environments and their biota, while exotic animals bring home the point that

nature conservation must be approached on a global scale. "

 

Since the term exotic is a relative one, it does not rule out

equal consideration of a foreign creature in the context of its captivity in

India. But the con has been placed in conservation when it comes to captive

breeding, grandiosely termed 'conservation breeding.'

 

It is now time for the governmental bodies like the Central Zoo

Authority and the Animal Welfare Board of India to seriously reconsider

their role. The Animal Welfare Board of India, that has been very vocal in a

select few cases of animal cruelty kept mum on the giraffe death issue. Why?

One might ask. Is it not within their ambit to speak out against cruelty in

any case, be the animal foreign or indigenous, rare or common? This is a

thought that the AWBI should ponder to chart its future course of

activities.

 

The recent death of the giraffe also shows the skewed policy

inherent in captive breeding. Giving ostensible priority to species over

individuals, pure breeds over hybrids and local animals over foreign

animals. Since foreign animals have not come calling to India out of their

own accord, they deserve proper care and respect.

The Central Zoo Authority has to do its duty by starting a

process of inquiry into the giraffe death that involved two Indian zoos and

to bring the offenders to book. In the absence of such action, these

incidents will proliferate and the guilty get away with murder. And such a

scenario will surely spell doom for India's captive animal community. The

statement of the Central Zoo Authority Member Secretary is symptomatic of

the wider malaise of shirking responsibility in every other field in India.

Let us pray that the Central Zoo Authority and the Animal Welfare Board of

India become equal to the task at hand.

 

Excalibur, Quarterly newsletter of People for

Animals, Calcutta