The end result of total pc correctness. The hippies who run these places think we go there to see twenty five or thirty more ring-tailed lemurs. I am a Republican. When I take my kid to the zoo, I want him to see elephants and be inspired.
The end result of total pc correctness. The hippies who run these places think we go there to see twenty five or thirty more ring-tailed lemurs. I am a Republican. When I take my kid to the zoo, I want him to see elephants and be inspired.
I think its a little more complicated than this artilce presents.
The trend in zoos today, with the problems involving endangered species - and elephants ARE endangered - see the National Geogrpahic sit for a horrific article on a massacre of elephants by gnagster poachers - is for zoos to "specialize" in certain species and concentrate on providing the ones they maintain with an optimal environment and breed them.
Elephants are extremely interesting animals, and, as the article DOES state, highly intelligent with very complex social structures. (I guess that's why Republicans chose elephants and Democrats chose jackasses as their respective symbols.)
They would be better maintained in some kind of large open facility where a herd could be kept under more or less natural conditions. There simply isn't enoough room in the Bronx Zoo to maintain these animals properly.
But I agree, it is interesting to watch them, and unless people can enjoy doing so, the rationale for protecting them is lost on most people.