In Gorilla's Death, Critics Blame Mother, Cincinnati Zoo

[Orrex]

84. The original comment to which I posed that hypothetical...

Last edited Tue May 31, 2016, 07:03 AM - Edit history (1)

Was something to the effect that "wild animals should not be kept in cages." It was, I inferred, a general statement on the ethics of zoos.

To that end, it seemed reasonable to observe that, given the not too far-fetched choice between a wild animal in a cage and a wild animal dead in a poacher's truck, I'd prefer the former.

It was a hypothetical posed between two choices, one of which was basically handed to me by the thread. I've made no claim that these are the only two choices nor even that they're the best choices; they're simply two among many admittedly sub-optimal but nevertheless dintinguishable scenarios.

Significantly, neither of those scenarios addresses the current tragedy, in which a gorilla was killed because (ultimately) the zoo failed to install adequate barriers to ensure that people can't get into the enclosure. Nor does either scenario intend to; the subthread arose ffom a disagreement about whether the proposed hypothetical was or was not a false dichotomy. Spoiler: it wasn't.

I'm about done with these discussions, in which poster after poster steps forth to present themselves as more passionately pro-animal than anyone else.