I read an article recently about a traumatized elephant named Jenny at the Dallas Zoo who suffers from severe bouts of depression and stress disorder. At first I thought it was a little funny–an animal with depression but then I quickly smothered that thought with the bitter reality that we, as humans–or rather one particularly insane circus trainer–had done this to her. How can anyone do something like that to an animal? I’m not taking the ‘poor, pitiful creature’ position in the slightest. Dogs, cats, domesticated and wild: all deserve respect and the freedom to fufill their needs. Yes, in a way it is our responsibility to care for them if only for because we deny them that very freedom to be animals but we need to be aware that caring for something inevitably means controlling it.
I try not to drive fast in country or residential areas not only because of the speed limit but because I’m terrified that an animal will run across the road be it a deer or a squirrel. I don’t think I’d ever recover from hitting another living creature which is driven home whenever I pass roadkill (a horrible term in and of itself). But how could you knowingly whip and beat an animal into submission until it’s so traumatized it gouges itself with its trunks and repeatedly bashes its head into the wall? It would be no different if that was another human and it’s this cold, clinical detachment that’s so downright frightening. I see animal rescue shows on TV where barely recognizable, scruffy mutts are found cowering in backyard pens. I treasure every moment with my dog and even if I didn’t have enough money to see that her every doggy-desire is fufilled I would still care for her in the same way. A wild animal is no different. Near my grandmother’s retirement community a starving cougar was spotted near a woman’s home. Its ribs were poking through its skin and it was obvious that it had been driven into a populated area by hunger. So what did the authorities do? They couldn’t seem to wait until someone with a tranquilizer gun showed up (even though the animal mostly hid under a bush and never attacked anyone) so they decided to shoot it.
Jenny needs to be in a sanctuary where people no longer interfere with her, as it should be.
