Last week, it was reported in the media that a man jumped into the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo with his two-year old child, intending to get a close-up photograph with one of the huge captive pachyderms. The stunt took a terrifying, and predictable, turn when the elephant charged the father and daughter. Thankfully, both were able to get out of the enclosure without suffering serious injury and the father has since allegedly been held on child endangerment charges. While it might be easy to dismiss the event as one person making an ill-informed decision that put him and his child in mortal danger, this incident is part of a larger trend of zoo visitors attempting to get too close to the wild animals held captive there, sometimes with devastating results.
In 2014, a woman in Michigan had the end of a finger ripped off by a lion in a zoo when she allegedly tried to pet him. A similar incident occurred in Senegal in 2020 when a member of zoo staff tried to pet a lion through the bars as a demonstration for visitors. Around the same time, a young boy had to have his whole arm amputated after he attempted to feed meat to a tiger in a Brazilian zoo. Reports suggest that the boy’s father had encouraged the youngster to approach the animal. A volunteer, apparently attempting to interact with an orangutan in Mexico in 2013, also lost a finger, and a similar incident – where a volunteer had their thumb “detached” by an orangutan – occurred in Ohio in 2019. A report from Chile on the same day as the incident in Mexico confirmed that another child had a finger partially bitten off by a monkey in a zoo.
In Russia in 2014, a young girl’s entire hand was bitten off by a bear as she posed in front of his cage for a photo and poked her hand through the bars when her mother turned her back for a moment. Finally, anyone who saw the shock docuseries, Tiger King, will be familiar with the staff member, Saff, who lost his arm as a result of a tiger attack.
Born Free believes that all wild animals should live in freedom and not held captive for our entertainment. The multiple events above demonstrate clearly that animal suffering is not the only consequence of holding dangerous wild animals in unnatural captive situations. Holding wild animals captive in zoos and similar venues also creates a safety risk for visitors. On the most basic level, no visitor to a zoo should be able to access the animals’ enclosures and no member of staff should be in such close contact with the animals that such life changing injuries may occur. But the responsibility of the zoo, and other industries that exploit animals for profit, to keep its visitors and staff safe should not end there.
What leads someone to believe that it is safe to be in such close quarters with a wild animal is arguably a deliberate and increasingly prevalent trend of industries actively encouraging unnaturally close interaction with animals who would never normally cross paths with humans.
For example, the use of wild animals as “photo props” both inside and outside of zoos is damaging to the individual animals and to conservation, and poses a direct threat to the people having their photos taken. Long-standing criticism of the trend of taking “selfies” with tigers (animals who are allegedly drugged or heavily restrained) reached such proportions that different countries have threatened legislative bans on photos of this kind.
The use of wild animal “actors” in films such as The Hangover, Night at the Museum, and Water for Elephants, as well as in promotional stunts by zoos and in both television and print ads have (either intentionally or otherwise) promoted the direct interaction between dangerous wild animals and people. Research has shown that the use of animals in this way can affect the perception that members of the public have of the conservation status of these animals.
The increase in exotic pet ownership over the last few decades, including dangerous animals such as big cats and great apes, has further served to position wild animals in domestic human settings, both literally and psychologically.
It could be argued that these types of animal exploiting actions and events have been around for a very long time. This is true, but in the age of the internet, social media, and (often multiple) televisions in each household, a photograph or video can be sent around the world and viewed by millions in a matter of moments. The problem of people interacting with wild animals is perhaps not new, but it is certainly more visible than it ever has been before.
The man who entered the elephant enclosure in San Diego zoo may now face criminal charges, along with public condemnation for his actions, but his actions are a symptom of a much bigger problem, which we can only address if we reassess the ways in which we both perceive and interact with wild animals. The man and his child no more belong in an enclosure in a city zoo as the elephant herself does. And, while zoos and other industries continue to promote complex, intelligent, and fundamentally dangerous wild animals as tractable, benign objects of curiosity to be petting, touched, and otherwise manipulated for our entertainment, incidents like this will continue to occur.
You can help to stop wild animal suffering in captivity by taking the following simple steps:
- Do not visit the zoo;
- Never take a “selfie” with a wild animal;
- If you come across a wild animal in their natural environment, give them space and do not try to interact with them;
- Do not support films or television programs which use “animal actors.”
Note: Parts of this article have been adapted from an original piece by the author published by The Dodo in 2014.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Liz
