I’m hung up on the unsilverlined silverback Harambe tragedy. After watching the video a few times, it continues to run in my mind. I see the great and beautiful primate clearly making a universal gesture of nurturance with its delicate paw. His aura calm. Body language, unaggressive. Maybe I’m projecting, but I saw awareness and protectiveness on display in that enclosure. And a look, unforgettable, seems to be saying “Yo people, y’all know you dropped bambino in here, down here…Reading me?”
The subsequent hit on the ape, and ensuing flurry of responses, including laying of blame compels me less. But that’s sure interesting too. [As a sidebar to this I keep thinking that if we can no longer recognize fundamental signs, mudras for benign intent- from creatures of our own world- what chance do we have of getting the right message when the aliens come visit?]
As spectacle this fiasco has nuggets within nuggets, gems within germs of twisted irony- you couldn’t have written such a thing. — Mom, who lets child skedaddle from her reach and fall into a safe space – for the gorilla- who was born and raised in such captivity — his species endangered — a lineage we evolved from in the first place— to the point of us now all using cell phones constantly, which capture this horrific scene and show EVERYBODY. We all see the shocked but placid boy propped up, stood over, dragged cleanly— then, as we knew had to happen— the other shoe falls. Grimmest of outcomes. Human cruelty in the name of priorities of preservation.
Footnoted…the mom, a mortal caregiver thrust into an unprecedented vortex, her defense dubious at best, her take… “Shit happens…” Also “God protected my child until the authorities were able to get to him.” In other words… big Ups to the big Man…The Supreme Zookeeper… for his leniency… allowing conditions to be in place for my baby to live and the gorilla…who I deliberately went to see, with my child so eager for encounter he telegraphed his intent to jump the fence and drop down there….to be terminated. That is one serious can of logic-tossed worm-salad.
I wonder how much of the zeal from the kid was pure innate magnetism to the wild… a siren song à la .. Grizzly Man Timothy Treadwell? How much is anthropomorphism, cartoon chatter, ersatz dialog, the Disneyfication of mass consciousness? Maybe it’s this same impulse, which simultaneously embraces and eradicates, that brought us to the state to have to make zoos in the first place. Contrivances to preserve our beleaguered animal kin, memory boxes for amusement, diversion, and to reference our common origins.
So what’s the silver lining here, among these many flecks of gray. Can we break it down? If we’re going to drive species to extinction, ancestral kin no less- and then as a last ditch effort in trying to preserve unique specimens we are ‘forced’ to kill one of the last incarnations reflexively, as a consequence to a decision to ‘protect’ one negligent and wayward member of the incarcerating ‘higher’ species (of which there are too many)…if we are going to maintain artificial habitats without sufficiently trained intermediaries around to protect the protected, to interpret and advocate for those for whom the agency was established…. then at least…then at least…
I can’t find the silverbacking to this one. In the wake of this event, those not already chronically benumbed, mourn. And all who aren’t lying to ourselves know we carry a shard of guilt in this whether we admit it or not.
"Shard of guilt"
This article by our resident Spinoza pierces the heart of the netherworld that is “human.” Everyone on Earth should read this and weep.
Harambe
I had a very similar reaction to watching the video, but you do a great job summing up the underlying twists and turns that make it sad on so many levels.
I can understand why people, especially parents, would freak out watching this happen, especially when they both vanish from sight. In my zoo, though, I’d hope that there was a procedure to stay calm and try some more communicative measures. I give more credit to animals than some – many know what is going on. It’s hard to get an animal’s attention when they are focused on something, but it isn’t impossible.
This event also is presented with the background of the “we’re sick of the innocent being shot” mood in the country, and the increasing pressure/awareness that animals be given rights. Circuses ending elephants will be followed by them ending all animal acts (until animals willingly go and audition).
If there is a silver lining, it is that you are not alone in how you feel about this. Nor is this the story of every parent and child. It isn’t every zookeeper, either. And hopefully Harambe’s death will lead to some new procedures to make certain no one else falls into enclosures, and if they do, shooting is a very last resort.
Anyhow – great writing…thanks.
"It continues to run in my mind"
I can’t bring myself to watch the film of the murder of Harambe. This philosophical narrative is as close to the event as I will allow myself.
I’m inured to the murder of humans. The media has toughened me to just flip pages or the channels. Most of the time I don’t even know why I need to read or see about just another shooting, a murder-suicide five states away or how many people die or are wounded. It’s not like most of the reported violence is local anyway, that could possibly have bearing on going about my day. Hell, I know how godawful people are. Why can’t we have a break from all that.
This is different. There wasn’t even an imminent conflict-resolution with Harambe. They just up and shot him dead. I respect no one associated with his death, the child, the mother and her god who she believed “protected my child until the authorities were able to get to him.” As it is written, so shall it be. The good old days of belief in god, killed yet again.
This narrative, this philosophical essay brought it home. And “it continues to run in my mind.”
Who are the real aliens?
Forgive me, but I’m not trying to piggyback on Spinoza’s article but, really, every word this gifted man has written here should be highlighted in bold. Even his parenthesized ‘sidebar’ speaks volumes: “[As a sidebar to this I keep thinking that if we can no longer recognize fundamental signs, mudras for benign intent- from creatures of our own world- what chance do we have of getting the right message when the aliens come visit?]”
By the same token, should we really allow ourselves to visit other habitable planets where life exists? Would we go there to conquer and colonize? Would we send missionaries to convert the alien heathens? Maybe we should stay planted here until such time we are emotionally mature enough to respect other lifeforms.
born free
I had a chance this weekend to take a cat out for the first time at his new house. He’s been inside for a month or so, and we ventured out to smell the yard and do some exploring. Much fun.
Humans were worried he’d run away. He stayed close and only wandered slightly out of the yard. That got him picked up and brought back in, but it was at the end of an ample outing.
Insentient Animals
I think it’s amazing that even at this late date, we still cling to the idea that only humans have “intelligence” or any rights at all — that if a creature can’t communicate with us, we can do with it as we will. If we manage to survive our own trashing of the planet and all other life forms, we might figure that out one day and learn how to live in harmony with nature instead of as its overlord.
Zoos have always seemed really sad and kind of barbaric to me. Then again, we’ve depleted natural habitat to such an extent that at some point, the only place animals will have left to live will be nature preserves — and zoos.
Signature Touch
Not to take the spotlight off great primate Harambe, who was sacrificed, but somehow the story of the child-eating alligator at Disney deserves mention here. Similar themes abound; artificial environments and porous boundaries, lapses of attention, wild nature and illusions of discontiguation, human denseness, casualties of voyeurism, innocence unleashed…
Talk about meta. It’s an archetypal story worthy of a Disney movie. In what has to be one of the age-oldest of stories, the alligator WILL eat the person, despite whatever words or deal seemed in place.
Horrible, horrible, for all involved..but as sheer spectacle Orlando this week is beyond comprehension.
Lesson learned?
I know. Another child wanders off. This time the animal wasn’t as gentle.
Disney World is a weird place. I both love it and hate it. One of the ongoing jokes at the park is that whenever one sees a real animal, such as a bird in a tree, they remark “wow, what a realistic audio-animatronic bird!” The same would be true of alligators.
Living in Florida, we learned about alligator attacks. They can move fast, and a log by the side of a pond could suddenly lunge quite a distance. It becomes instinct to stay 20 feet or so from low-lying water edges. Usually they go after small things (friends lost dogs to alligators) but occasionally they do after people (my geometry teacher’s husband was chomped).
I wouldn’t expect tourists to know all of this, and tourists at Disney would very much be excused for thinking they were safe. It’s part of the “magic”.
But, it is unreal, as you point out, that we have another curious child situation so soon after we all learned to keep an eye on our children a couple of weeks ago.
Tyger Burning Bright Alright
This gothic stem-winding epic just keeps getting sicker. Chapter after chapter, the author brings a penchant for setting up scenes where heights of arrogance snuggle with raw force and beauty in captivity. And then, what mustn’t go wrong does. This bodes horribly for all the animal kingdom, and makes us look like massive maniacal jerks.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3652637/Army-mascot-Jaguar-SHOT-DEAD-moments-photographed-Olympic-torch-Brazil-break-freedom.html
How widespread our fellow animals die at human hands
Obviously, our fellow animals in human captivity certainly goes back to antiquity. I don’t see a systematic way to change that because one group or nation cannot control the doings of another. And, we certainly aren’t “one world.”
This article, “Marius the giraffe was not alone: zoos in Europe kill 5,000 healthy animals annually” (The Huffington Post UK. 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2015) shows how widespread our fellow animals die at human hands:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/02/27/marius-giraffe-zoos-cull_n_4865542.html?
Hired Hands
It’s no doubt true we’ve brutalized beasts at least since our cro-mag kin hastened the demise of many species of mega-fauna. Even while adorning the walls of caves with embellishments of their prowess, we practiced slaughter. I understand we can’t control others while we ourselves run amok through the biosphere. But I would think one thing we would all share is a sense of awe.
I recall a particularly amazing week about twenty years ago, when I saw close-up a humpback whale in Morro Bay, a bob-cat at Mt. Greylock, and a moose here in town crossed my path while biking down Williams street. Besides feeling honored, and stunned at the sights, renewed respect was automatic from just encountering such sheer wild embodiment.
These stories of spectacle and cruel human hubris going hand-in-hand hit me hard. Probably comes from watching King Kong over and over as a kid. Sometimes it seems we’re nothing but a species of Lennies.
"...we’re nothing but a species of Lennies."
I like comments that make me dig for it.
Moose!
Weekly mass shootings and regular killings of rare animals seem to be the new normal.
We’re wiping ourselves out, and taking everything with us as we go.
Like spinoza, my encounters with “big, scary animals” has always gone well. There was the pair of Florida bobcats that walked out in front of us when riding bikes one day, another large Florida cat walking to the beach for a snack, and bumping into a 6 foot heron wading in Gulf of Mexico at midnight and standing together for a while.
My first moose was funny, though. While driving back after a hike one day, I saw one. Huge. Eating on the other side of a small pond. I tried to form the words to tell others in the car that there was a moose eating across the pond, but all that came out was “moose”. “moose.” I kept saying it, louder and louder… “MOOSE!” By then I was able to form words again and was able to get out “There is a moose!” which caused the driver, my dad, to slow down, turn around and we went back for another look. He didn’t want to go to slow, worried that the moose could charge, so we spent a few minutes driving back and forth, turning around and going by the moose, who continued to lazily eat.
Wouldn’t cross my mind to kill any of these. All superior to little ol’ me.