Caged conscience

Friday 28th August, 2020

It is ironical that the suspension of a workers’ protest against a move to shift the Dehiwala zoo to a suburb of Colombo has coincided with an expression of regret, such as it is, by a US zoo for having kept an African boy in a cage 114 years ago. Ota Benga, a Congolese, was only 12 years old when he was captured and shipped to the US, where he was made to share a cage with apes as an exhibit in the Bronx Zoo, New York, for about three weeks; large crowds gathered there to see him. When public opinion turned against the caging of a human, the zoo falsely claimed the boy was not an exhibit as such but one of its workers. Benga was later released owing to protests and taken to a seminary, but he committed suicide at the age of 25, as he could not cope with emotional and psychological trauma. More than a century on, thanks to the Black Lives Matter protests, the Bronx zoo had chosen to express regret, foreign media reported yesterday.

The caging of Benga, for a few weeks received a lot of media attention and the Bronx Zoo was condemned internationally for that act of cruelty. It is universally accepted that humans must not be denied the freedom of movement, much less kept in cages, unless they are convicted criminals who pose a danger to society. But the supposedly civilised world has no qualms about meting out such unspeakable treatment to animals. They are separated from their families, shipped all over the world to be kept in cages as exhibits. Worse, political leaders now practise ‘animal diplomacy’, which is to gift the dumb critters to their foreign counterparts. Animals also feel depressed when deprived of their natural habitats and loved ones.

It defies understanding why the practice of caging animals in zoos most of which are characterised by squalor is tolerated. There are many organisations to take up the cudgels for innocent humans thrown behind bars, but hardly anyone gives a tinker’s cuss about millions of animals imprisoned in zoos as a form of public entertainment. Humans realised how depressing it was to have their freedom of movement curbed, during lockdowns although they were in their own homes among their loved ones. The anthropause was a blessing to animals, which roamed about freely even in big cities in some countries.

Former Minister Mangala Samaraweera was once hauled over the coals for saying that Sri Lanka was not a Buddhist country. His was a political statement intended to rile his critics, but can a country that allows the imprisonment of animals, permits their slaughter and unflinchingly rakes in revenue from licences issued for killing dumb creatures consider itself Buddhist? The Buddha advised laypeople not to trade in living beings and flesh.

Some baby elephants in the Pinnawala orphanage, which, in fact, is a baby farm, are cruelly separated from their mothers even before being weaned and made to undergo immense suffering in the process of domestication.

We now have a government which makes a public display of its commitment to fostering Buddhism. But within the first few days of its formation, dozens of sniffer dogs that had served the police and the country faithfully and aged, were auctioned. The successful bidders were total strangers and the police even do not know whether they can look after the precious canines properly. The government has not yet ordered an end to the inhuman practice of selling the canine officers in their twilight years when they need comfort, care and companionship and, therefore, have to be with their handlers who shower affection on them. Throwing them out of the police kennels is as sinful and deplorable as throwing ageing parents into kennels, as we argued in a previous column. Let it be repeated that the canine sleuths of integrity, having served the public diligently, unlike some bipeds in uniform notorious for dereliction of duty and corruption, richly deserve an off-lead life with their caring handlers, as they grow old. We suggest that one of the V8 SUVs used by minsters be auctioned and proceeds utilised to look after the retired sniffer dogs worth their weight in gold.

It is time the ‘civilised’ world realised that animals are not there to entertain humans or be traded in as commodities.