I fully intended on blogging while at Disney, but Robert didn't bring his computer! Blame him! Ha! I have a ton of catching up to do, so I'll start where I left off. I just finished up the fun part of the fair, now I wanted to get into the questionable bits.
I love animals. I love everything about them. I love to study them, I love to pet them, I love to look at them. I just don't really like to eat them, and I especially don't like to feel like they aren't treated with a little dignity. As a biologist, I know it's natural for people to domesticate and eat animals, but cruelty is cruelty no matter what species you are.
It started out so innocently with show goats, happily munching on straw. I didn't feel bad for them, because I knew their pens at the fair were temporary.
Then we got to the Ponderosa Petting Zoo exhibit, which I had been looking forward to. However, when I got there I was horrified by what I found. There was a really large pen in the center with goats, and sheep, and a couple tortoises. Again, I didn't think anything was wrong with this because they had so much room and the people were feeding them. They seemed like they liked it. They are domesticated after all.
However, around the outside of the larger pen were much smaller pens filled with animals you don't typically find on a farm. Like these south american cavvies and the two silver foxes below.
Their cages were just too small in my opinion. The camel (un-pictured) and zonkey looked absolutely miserable. You couldn't get close to them because they would bite you, and it was just so sad.
This was a little duck pond they had where the ducklings were taken up a hill on a conveyor, crowded on top to try to get food that was dangling just off the edge, and then systematically pushed over the slide by their pond mates to start the cycle all over again. It's the closest thing I've come to seeing the infamous dancing monkey on a leash, and I just didn't see a point. I would have enjoyed just watching the ducklings swim, so I felt like they were being tortured for our entertainment. Again- sad. :(
This is the zonkey. He's half zebra, half donkey, and they had him in a cage where he could barely turn around. No one could interact with him because he was so stressed and miserable, he would have bitten you instantly. All the joy of seeing the animal was ruined at the sight of his inadequate care. I only hope that they treat him better at the permanent petting zoo.
Lastly, we went to see rabbits and chickens that were for sale/show. The rabbits were cute and seemed content, but I thought the bird cages were a little cramped. Luckily I don't think they spend their time in cages that size for very long. They are actually very lucky compared to factory farm chickens that don't even have room to stand up. It made me thankful that I was a vegetarian.
I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer; it was just something that Robert and I discussed a lot. I don't enjoy seeing animals that aren't appreciated by their owners, and I figured discussing this difficult topic could help shed some light on why I choose not to eat these animals. I promise the next entry will be a happy one though, because it will be about the hypnotist. Then I'll talk about Disney!
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