The Zoo Ark
"Oh my god, they've killed Kenny!"
A tiger urinated after being shouted at.
Captives choke, plastic straws lodged in their throats.
Their blue faces now unbarred. Throw things at them.
The cage is full of cigarette butts, popcorn packets.
Thousands of grubby human hands
that have held greasy chips cooked in fat,
pulled the pants out of backsides,
and excavated an unwashed ear,
now grab for the orang-outang.
The new enclosure at Taronga in Sydney
is funded by millions of public donations.
But instead of being able to climb
"sixty feet into the air to build a nest"
as the fund-raising publicity enthused,
the orang-outangs are in fact seperated
from 'their' rain-forest by a water barrier
and the trees are 'hot wired'
to prevent them from climbing at all.
Venture into the world of living animals Disney-style,
four cheetah cubs died after ingesting a deadly chemical
commonly found in anti-freeze.
Two West African Crown Cranes were run over by park tour buses,
a rhinoceros died after being anaesthetised for quarantine
and a hippopotamus died of blood poisoning.
"Five hundred acres of something more than puppets,"
said spokesperson Bill Warren,
"There's going to be mistakes, but hopefully we will learn."
He said, "they like to eat antifreeze because its nice and sweet,
we try not to give it to them normally".
A black bear with a sugar addiction is a large problem.
Scientists found it exciting but worrisome.
"Oh my god, they've killed Kenny!"
If you could actually feel their misery.
The agile spider monkeys with the slow-moving grizzlys.
giraffes like gentlemen as they linger on the grass.
Time is here for the rest of their lives.
This afternoon, The Affection Section -
where you get to touch a baby goat but pay attention,
or you could become part of an elephant's footprint!
Exotic animals are dangerous, they are not good pets.
A small pool of algae and slime resides
in the middle of the Mountain Gorilla's cage.
The carnivore and herbivore areas divided by fences
and electrically operated gates.
The walrus calf is not quite one-month-old,
but looking like a little man with a whiskered face.
The zebra's landscape was nothing but dirt, rocks
and a lone tree for shade.
The lion's pen was by far the worst.
You just cannot take the wild from them.
A tiger urinated after being shouted at.
Scientists found it exciting but worrisome.
You know through working with Zoo Ark animals,
I've learnt the different smells,
like when they smell sad.
If only you could feel the misery
of the pandas born in captivity, only
twenty-one percent survive more than three years.
There was not a hint of grass to be seen.
Scientists found it exciting but worrisome.
Visitors can fondle animals and dance to music with them.
There are a lot of people who wouldn't be dancing
if it weren't for zoos.
Captive residents of the Next Great Ark
illegally and secretly smuggled into a trade
worth a hundred million dollars a year
are either sent to travelling menageries, or used
in vivisection, canned hunts
or lost at private functions in Los Angeles.
'It's something different,' said Debbie Zuchelli,
who sat in the front row yesterday with her two children.
The dumping of surplus exotic animals has become an epidemic.
Tuk died surrounded by Zoo staff.
He was amongst the six polar bear cubs
who arrived at the Vancouver Zoo, thirty-five years ago.
His head rocking nodding swaying loopy-loop
in the concrete pit is over now.
Tuk has been removed to safety. His misery extinct.
This tank has to produce its own seawater which is recycled
so I can see many fish swim, without ever leaving Hong Kong.
A black bear with a sugar addiction is a large problem.
A woman reported that a performing zebra
chased her into the stands and butted her head.
The zebra was not available for comment.
In Noah's Ark the flood was a disaster but only a temporary one.
There is no sign of regaining the destroyed habitat now.
This zoo is an Ark that will be afloat forever.
The thirteen-year-old pachyderm opened a door with his trunk
and galloped a quarter of a mile across ball fields.
Elephants belong in a jungle,
they are not suited to a school gymnasium.
'It's something different,' said Debbie Zuchelli,
who sat in the front row yesterday with her two children.
The public beating of a baby elephant named Mickey
during a performance in Oregon, USA.
This tragic beating caused him to bleed,
gasp for air, scream in pain and collapse.
Physically abusing animals will keep them dangerous.
Human cages are often dark, with little room for sunshine.
Miss Chipperfield was found kicking a chimpanzee
and caning a camel. "I wasn't beating it,
I was encouraging it with a stick," she said.
"It's like trying to persuade a reluctant child to go to bed."
Monkeys forced to dance on tightropes.
Tigers, lions and elephants dragged into acrobatic performances,
under the threat of whipping.
A parade of dancing girls lead brightly clad Malayan bears
on leashes attached to rings pierced through lips.
"Oh my god, they've killed Kenny!"
A tiger urinated after being shouted at.
The dancers forced the black bears to walk up-right,
dance or play music by tugging on their leashes.
Scientists found it exciting but worrisome.
Audience members in Korea got sexually charged
by watching the bleeding stallions
who had been urged into a violent fighting frenzy
and neighed in pain.
Deep wounds and scars from flailing hoofs and teeths,
the entire performance being hailed as the new aphrodisiac.
"They did not know how to fight, but we have trainers to train them."
Ten year old pupil Tian Jun said he had enjoyed the action.
"That was a good show.
But I like dog fighting more," he said.
Physically abusing animals will keep them dangerous.
Lions clubbed with iron bars,
a bear confined to his container for thirty-nine hours
with a fifteen minute performance break,
Elephants beaten until they scream,
an infant chimpanzee locked in the dark alone.
Suddenly, the circus ran away from the children,
it ran away to be away from them,
whilst the children ran away to be with the circus,
the tent stood still but the animals ran,
the colourful pageantry disguised the beating so well,
that the beatings lifted off the animal's pain
and ran into the sky,
the circus tent billowed briefly
as if wind had lifted it.
Circuses are often unable to provide adequate water.
Elephants bathe infrequently.
The summers are harsh on bears,
whereas the lions suffer mostly from the cold.
If only you could feel their misery.
During the winter months some animals are kept
in the backs of trucks.
Confined bears spend thirty percent of the time pacing,
elephants head-bobbing and swaying.
Some are drugged to make them manageable and
have had their teeth removed.
Sometimes, the little brown bear had trouble
balancing on the high wire.
She was then beaten with long metal rods
until she was screaming and bloody.
She became so neurotic that she would beat her head
against her small cage. She finally died.
One chimpanzee was struck repeatedly with a sturdy club,
the thumps could be heard outside the arena building.
Bears balancing on balls,
apes riding motor cycles,
elephants standing on two legs.
Whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bull hooks,
elephant hooks, iron bars, pitchforks and shovels
used by the brave and commanding human counterparts,
whom we put our trust and faith into
as we pay for our tickets into the future.
Finally Sue, an Asian elephant with the Jordan Circus,
Picked up her trainer, Rex Williamson, tossed him,
and then stepped on him,
while she was giving rides to two children.
Scientists found it exciting but worrisome.
Exotic animals are dangerous. They do not make good pets.
A flaming hoop fell on a Bengal tiger during a performance.
He was a hell-eater, his burnt ears, burnt skull
and his mind an entrance to the underworld.
Five rhesus monkeys did all kinds of tricks.
They could comb hair, wheel the doll's pram,
wash a few dishes, say their prayers to god,
drink a six-pack and then go to bed.
The only live monkey act to come from Australia.
"Oh my god, they've killed Kenny!"
Three shows in one day for this baby elephant,
requiring him to walk out, kick a ball,
wave his trunk at the audience
and sit up on his little back legs.
Taken at one year of age and trained to perform.
His mother's legs chained to a breeding facility.
Kenny's death is hushed by Ringling Bros,
his soft grey ears like crumpled sails,
rotten apples in his stomach.
Ten-year-old pupil Tian Jun said he had enjoyed the action.
"That was a good show.
But I like dog fighting more," he said.
Human cages are often dark, with little room for sunshine.
An eighteen-month-old monkey is being kicked and whipped
It takes a lot to beat some sense into an elephant.
"I wasn't beating it, I was encouraging it."
A camel being beaten with a stick.
A tiger urinating after being shouted at.
A heavily pregnant lioness being forced to perform,
they were starting her cubs off early.
Big cats hosed and left in flooded cages,
elephants chained for hours.
A monkey having a prolapsed rectum
forced back in by two animal keepers.
"We've got to do it and the quicker the better."
They were the monkey rectum midwives.
"If it doesn't work, we'll ring the vet,
who'll be here within an hour to perform the operation,
but normally we just beat him til his arse falls out,
then we just push it back up inside,
it's really fucken easy, like putting a pie into an oven." |
