Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) - Gobar Times (Down To Earth's Supplement)

INTERVIEW

GT speaks to Ms. Bearhug, a animal rights activist, where she challenges the claims made by zoos to justify their existence

Education
GT: Zoos give people the opportunity to understand the behavioural characteristics of animals, which would not have been possible otherwise. Seeing the animals develops the feeling of respect towards animals in human beings, they say.

Ms. Bearhug: Rubbish! Captive behaviour of animals is very different from a free animal and is only a distorted picture of the wild animals. Zoo animals living in unnatural condition display unnatural behaviour (see box: Zoochosis). There are very few zoos, which have some educational facilities and all these are non-animal facilities such as lectures, theatre and videos for which the physical presence of an animal is not required. Zoo exhibits rarely explain how and why species are on the brink of extinction.

Conservation
GT: Zoos hold animals in captivity and breed them to increase numbers of endangered species. This way in 20 or 30 or 50 years time, we will be able to release them in the wild. Isn't that a good idea?

Ms. B: Animals don't need help breeding. They've been doing it very successfully for years. They are threatened because of a variety of environmental factors - all too often the destruction of their habitat by humans. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to keep animals in conditions identical to their natural habitat without excessive inbreeding to maintain adequate genetic diversity, which is very expensive and difficult. Even if zoos were able to manage this, over time the animals themselves would be altered, as zoos are unable to reproduce appropriate natural conditions for the animals. They also lose the skills to survive in the wild. There is also the danger that zoo bred animals will introduce diseases to wild populations, to which the wild population has no immunity or the captive bred animals will have lost their immunity to native diseases.

Research
GT: Aren't zoos useful for research?

Ms. B: Only a few zoos are involved in research and most of this is dedicated to the study of disease and physiology of animals aimed at keeping species in captivity and not how to conserve the species in their natural habitat. Therefore, results from captive animals have no use for animals that are in the wild. According to a 1994 report "The Zoo Inquiry" of 5926 endangered species identified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature IUCN only 120 or 2% are involved in zoo breeding programmes world-wide with only 16 successfully returned to the wild, several of which had only minimal involvement with zoos. A better solution is to preserve them in the wild.

Is this man a criminal?

The government banned catching of snakes in the name of conservation. And the Irulas lost a livelihood.

In order to survive animals (and plants) need space — ecological space. So do humans. And here the conflict begins. But there is another conflict that most of us ignore or deny. That is between the haves and the have nots, between rich people and poor people. Conflict over the same ecological space. Consider; 80% of the Earth’s resources are consumed by only 20% of the global population. Wildlife is disappearing more because of habitat loss, thanks mainly due to the lifestyles the rich have chosen.

An Irula catches a snak

Some people, with genuine concern, make laws to protect wildlife. Wildlife protection acts, conventions like CITES (Convention of Trade in Endangered Species). If you are amongst the privileged 20% who live on a healthy diet of the world’s natural resources, its all right. The laws won’t trouble you, they affect others, including the poor who are directly dependent on forests and wildlife.

Like the Irulas, a traditional snake and rat catching tribe from Tamil Nadu. This is the only art and skill they have. In 1976 the government banned catching of snakes to stop snake skin export and to restore the ecological balance. Life became a journey of hardships for the Irulas – what to eat and how to live!

Then came Romulus Whitakar, the "Snake Man of India". He formed Irula Snake Catchers Industrial Comparative Society, Ltd. in 1978. He used the tribesmen skills to catch poisonous snakes, extract their venom used in making anti-snake venom serum (ASVS) and sell it to laboratories. A poverty stricken people now started making a living. They dig out a specific number of cobras, saw scaled vipers, russel viper and kraits from snake holes and keep them in their farm where their venom is extracted for a month after which the snakes are again released in the wild. This provides employment to the Irula tribals as well as conserve snakes.

Bans and laws, believe some, work against the very aims that they set out to meet. Instead why not let communities have rights over their own natural resources. They should have a right to ‘exploit’ wildlife resources. Madras Crocodile Bank is a captive-breeding centre for crocodiles. They are involved in breeding, conservation education through tourism and sustained use of crocodiles. All parts of crocodile are of use to humans from crocodile skin leather to crocodile meat, which find a huge foreign market. This justifies crocodile farming –breeding crocodiles in large numbers and then putting them to such uses. But, the law does not permit trade in wildlife products. The breeding of crocs has been so successful, that the staff are said to eat crocodile omelletes to control the burgeoning population!

In Zimbabwe and Namibia successful conservation efforts, have increased population of african elephants. They trample and destroy villagers crops and create havoc. They are all poor countries who can earn some revenue by trade in ivory easing their financial burden as well as taking care of the surplus elephants. The money could also be used for the conservation of elephants. But CITES bans trade in ivory. Now what?

Can we think of sustainable ivory trade and crocodile farming? Animal rights activists would say that is cruel and inhumane. On the other hand are a lot of poor people can use those resources to escape poverty.