A day at the zoo

I know I can’t speak,

But this is all true

I cry often and laugh sometimes

I too have feelings just like you!

Yes, yes I am that innocent creature,

Which always can’t be strong

I have seen a myriad of emotions,

But I couldn’t express ,am I wrong?

School Days, when I say this, everyone goes back to the mesmerizing memories like the pages of an old diary. While we were in school, we studied a lot of things. Some of us might remember a few facts. But with time, few of us might have forgotten the specific dates and concepts of history, geography, or even science.

But, Let me ask this simple question which I am sure you might be aware of.

What is the difference between domestic and wild animals?

Simple, isn’t it.

I remember I used to be the first one to raise my hand to answer this question.

You guys might be wondering, why am I asking this simple question. The reason is that somewhere we have forgotten the answer to this.

Let's revise! Domestic Animals are those animals which we can keep at our home and wild animals are those who live in the FOREST.

Before letting the cat out of the bag, just bear me with one more question

How many of you have pets at home? Do you have the slightest idea that it is the proven fact that cuddling and playing with the pets is the best stress buster? Also, when you have a pet at home you do care about it like a family member.

Yes or no?

Don’t you think that every animal on this planet should be treated the same way? whether domestic or wild. My question is really, does everyone think so..?

Let me spill the beans and make my point more clear by sharing a recent experience.

Few days back, I went to Delhi with my family and suddenly a plan was made to visit the zoo.

I guess, most of you might have visited the Delhi zoo and if not, you have definitely missed something valuable. I repeat “REALLY VALUABLE”.

Let’s figure out how valuable it actually is?

On my way to the zoo, I had a big wide smile on my face, as I was really excited to see cute rabbits, birds, ducks, and different animals.

There was a long queue in the ticket lane. This proved that apart from government funds, the Delhi government has an ample amount of money to spend on the zoo. You'll soon figure out that why I laid emphasis on this.

While entering the zoo, there were signage boards with pictures of animals and directions. I wanted to see the rabbits first. But my brother was steering everyone towards watching a tiger first. This is how siblings are, totally different choices, but what to do, we can’t help. So, automatically we chose the way which headed towards the Bengal Tiger.

I was so thrilled about seeing a lion, the dance of the peacock, cute little rabbits, dozens of birds. But suddenly that smile shrank and it turned into frowns and the reason behind this is alarming.

Can anyone guess what was the agony behind the lost smile and anger?

It was the cages and pitiful condition of the animals.

On me being an extremely sensitive person, it was painful to see elephants tied in chains and bleeding, birds who are meant to fly, their melodious voice sounded like a painful dire as they were in cages too.

It was heights when we saw a cage where it was written -’ The Wolf’.When I say wolf what sort of image you have in your mind, A huge and ferocious animal. But it actually looked like a malnourished stray dog.

After viewing this inhuman and brutal side of the zoo, I completely lost my interest in watching any of the animals. In fact, my thoughts were trying to figure out does anybody takes care of these animals, what about their food, etc.

There is a famous quote by -Martin Buber

“An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.”

This is absolutely true. I could see the teary eyes of the elephants, the pain in the chirping of the birds, the misery of the bear, the lethargy of a tiger.

I could really feel that all of them are being traumatized by changing their natural habitat.

This agony didn’t let me sleep that night and I researched about the functioning of the Delhi zoo. I found an article titled-’Shocking and startling facts about Delhi Zoo’.The report was of 2018.

The report mentioned CZA(Central Zoo Authority) which has indicted 6 officers and employees for criminal offenses at the zoo, mysterious deaths of animals, replacement of animals with illegally captured animals, no postmortem reports, manipulation of records, and whatnot.

These grave illegalities were brought to the notice of the environment ministry. Gauri Maulekhi, an animal rights activist stated that this issue has been ignored for so many years.

Though SIT(a special investigation team )was hired, I guess nothing has changed. The helpless, shackled animals are still waiting for freedom.

I would conclude by saying..

Time has come to replace this unscientific concept of public entertainment with a rescue conservation system.

Just imagine, how would you feel if you are shackled with chains and people come to watch you as a source of entertainment.