Zoo Screwed

Forget the protests by Pamela Anderson about the seal hunt. If she and other ill informed Anti-Sealing opponents were really concerened with wildlife they would have fund raised for the Quebec City Zoo which closed this weekend. It is not just an animal story but a political animal story.

It is a sad tale that exposed the continuing failure of the Neo-Conservative agenda. It includes opportunist federal Conservative candidates claiming they would save the Zoo. A secret report to the Liberal provincial government that exposes their privatization of the Zoo failed, and finally the closure of the Zoo this weekend.

The Chicago Surrealists called for the freedom of prisoners in Zoo's.

Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm describes the origins of Zoos in the 19th century, in his book Age of Empires, as part of the culture of Imperialism. Zoos captured and imprisoned animals and humans. The Zoo's and anthropological exhibtions of the 19th century included animals and captive humans from Africa. We have since released the humans from their beneficial captivity, but the myth of the benefits of Zoo's for animals continues.

That being said the occupants of the Quebec Zoo deserve to live their final days in security.

But some beasts like a pair of grizzly bears are probably too old to be moved, even if a new home can be found for the lumbering orphans. Devastated zookeepers say they have no intention of destroying any animals, but they have yet to hear the shut-down plan from the zoo's owner, the Quebec government. "We have an obligation to these animals, and there is nobody here who is going to euthanize these animals just because the zoo is closed," keeper Karl Fournier said in an interview.

Something they have in common with working class pensioners who now face a concerted capitalist assault on their penison benefits.

Joey the Bear meets Joey the Worker and they both get screwed by capitalism.

Quebec zoo closure ruffles a few feathers
More recently, the federal Conservative government refused to help despite the claim by many Quebec City residents that local Tory candidates promised during the recent election campaign to bail out the zoo. Josée Verner, the minister in charge of the Quebec City region, says the candidates' words were twisted. The provincial Liberal government finally decided to pull the plug on the zoo after a secret report that apparently recommended closure. When the zoo reopened a few years ago after renovations, admission was hiked to $25 per adult. Prices were later cut in half but annual attendance dropped from 250,000 in the 1990s to 60,000 by 2005. The zoo ran a $5 million deficit in each of the past three years, covering about half of its operating expenses. The province estimates closing the zoo will cost $23 million.


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