"Cavemen" in Cages Do Nothing to Help Zoos' Real Captives

In August, I expressed frustrations with the concept of zoos in the post "'On Display' at the Zoo." One of my points was that until zoos start keeping humans from dwindling and dying cultures on display in small spaces behind glass walls in full view of their fellow humans, as part of an educational effort to get other humans to stop encroaching on their land, resources, and culture, I don't want to hear about how zoos are merely "educational" and not exploitative. Show me an "exhibit," I said, where one human has her hand up against the glass, looking out from her boxed-in life at a whole crowd of fellow humans, longing to be free like them, free to come and go and choose her surroundings and companions as she pleases -- and then we'll debate whether zoos' appeal to curious, paying people justifies the captivity and displaying of the zoos' inhabitants.

And because I'd already gone down this road mentally, I was all the more offended and angry to see what the Warsaw Zoo is up to and how it's putting an illogical, unrealistic spin on a similar concept and making light of what the animals we put on display in zoos endure. The Polish zoo has brought in actors to sit inside a cage and portray cavemen, "to spark interest in man's Neanderthal past" and "to promote interest in the theatrical play 'Caveman.'" The so-called exhibit is set up in the primate section of the zoo, and the actors are perpetuating ridiculous ideas about what it means to be locked up in a zoo exhibit.

In character, one man says, "This world is very small and we feel safe behind these bars. All of the people on the other side react in so many ways and they are more surprised, scared and confused than us."

Pardon me, but ... what a load of crap. The implication that our fellow animals kept on display in tiny, inadequate habitats "feel safe" because of the bars and the smallness of their world is ludicrous. Boredom suffered, instincts frustrated, privacy denied, exercise limited, social relationships manipulated, families disrupted -- these are the characteristics of life on display behind bars or a glass wall.

The director of the zoo even commented, "Showing an animal in the cage is something normal and common. We wanted to promote the idea that we haven't moved so far away from the animal world. That we are closer to animals than we sometimes think."

This exhibit does nothing to help people understand that we and our fellow animals are alike. There's no challenge here to humans' perceptions of their fellow animals. Indeed, this exhibit, like the director's language, reinforces the notion that we are separate from animals, not animals ourselves. It's a gimmick. Visitors are shocked to see humans in a cage, but they are not encouraged to question why it's OK to keep other animals in cages if it makes them uncomfortable to see humans in cages; instead, they're told that the imprisoned humans (and by implication, the other animals) are content there. Visitors are expected to find amusement in the display of humans who are there temporarily and by choice and to then move on to stare at the zoos' unwilling captives, without questioning a thing. Zoos are a prime example of how we've elevated ourselves above other animals, of how we've decided that they are here for our purposes and our amusement, not remotely proof that "we haven't moved so far away from the animal world." And no, the primary purpose of zoos is not save endangered species, nor is a significant percentage of funds used in that arena; the primary purpose of zoos is to provide entertainment for humans.

We are indeed "closer to animals than we sometimes think," but this ridiculous publicity stunt does nothing to help people see that.

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Photo by Flickr user pelican