No True Keeper

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers"

- William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV Scene III

...or not so much.

I saw the post the other day about the St. Louis Zoo requiring staff to be vaccinated in a zookeeper facebook group.  It provoked a lot of discussion, mostly about where everyone else's institutions stood on the road to mandated vaccination.  One keeper (or former keeper... or aspiring keeper... it's hard to keep track on that group) seemed shocked that keepers would need to be ordered to get it, especially if they work with vulnerable animals.

"Zookeepers should believe in science," this keeper said (paraphrasing to protect anonymity).  "There shouldn't be any anti-vax zookeepers."

Well, you'd think that... but...

The longer I've spent working with keepers - as one myself, as a manager of them, as an adjunct position, and just from online observations - I've always been amazed that they themselves often think they are monolithic - that a shared love of animals and working with them is all that they need to understand each other.  What makes this weird (and sometimes amusing for me) is the weird shock, borderline betrayal that they sometimes express when someone doesn't act like a zookeeper "should."

I've met zookeepers who were adamant that a true zookeeper couldn't eat meat or animal products... even though most of us do, and are reliant on animal agriculture to provide animal food materials for our charges (even if you don't eat meat or eggs, it has to be understood that the only reason that these products are available for us to buy for our animals is that there is a human market for them).  I've met zookeepers who felt no "true" zookeeper could vote Democratic, because that meant allying with the Left, which to them represents PETA and HSUS, while others (probably more numerous) swear that a keeper couldn't possibly be a Republican due to the association with climate-change denial, opposition to protections for endangered species, and a host of other environmental issues.  

Not surprisingly, the tempers flare hottest on subjects pertaining to animals and animal care, both in the zoo and at home.  Cetaceans in captivity?   Feeding live prey?  Euthanasia for population management?  The culture wars burn just as brightly between keepers (sometimes at the same zoo in the same department) as they do among any cable TV pundits.

I don't think that there's any ideological purity litmus test that is applied to determine if a person is a zookeeper or not.  If you take care of animals in a professional setting at a zoo, aquarium, or similar facility, you are a zookeeper (or aquarist).  There are times when it feels like it's been my identity, but in reality it's a job title.   It tells people what you do.   It doesn't determine who you are and what kind of person you are.