Political Animals

My boss's house loomed over the private zoo where I worked like a feudal manor overlooking its serfs... which, I suppose, was not an inaccurate way of looking at it.  Even though it was just yards away from the keeper office, and though I was one of the senior members of the staff, I only stepped foot inside the house once in the four years I worked for him.  I found it to be an awkward, uncomfortable experience - everything seemed a little wrong to me, a little stark, and a little... I don't know... gauche?  More emphasis on expensive than aesthetics or comfort.  I also was bothered by the fact that, though the living room walls were lined with expensive looking shelves, it took me a while before I finally saw a book.

I was not the least bit surprised to see that, instead of an animal tome, it was the recently-released memoir of Sarah Palin.

No community (especially one as unruly and - often - poorly socialized as ours) is ever truly monolithic.  Still, taken as a whole I've noticed that the zoo community tends to lean left of center.  It's not surprising.  Most of us start of in it as young, well-educated, and with a deep interest in conservation and environmental issues.  Animal care requires a degree of empathy, which often extends to humans as well as creatures, and most zoos are located in cities, which tend to foster more progressive viewpoints.  Oh, and most of us are also perpetually broke.  Even those of us who climb the ranks tend to remember where we came from and continue to empathize.  Not that I haven't met politically and culturally conservative keepers, it's just not as common, and they tend to be part of the exception to the rule.

The anti-rule, if you will, the complete contrast, tend to be the owners of private facilities, such as my former boss.  They all tend to be die-in-the-wool blood red.  Part of it may be a greater concern about financial matters; owning their own zoos, they tend to be a fair bit less idealistic and more focused on the bottom line, which I can hardly fault them for.  Part of it's probably cultural too, as such facilities are much more likely to spring up in rural areas.  At the same time, I've also noticed an angry, anti-regulatory streak (and if you're in the zoo world, you realize just how many forms of regulations the field is subject to), a constant simmering anger about government agencies and inspectors who dare to tell them what to do with *their* animals.  

Because these facilities are generally unaccredited and don't participate in the formal breeding programs, they have to buy their animals, or trade for them.  I feel like sometimes the constant buying and selling of animals fosters a viewpoint of them as commodities in their eyes.  I remember walking up on the owner and his wife as they were stroking a young camel I had been raising.  I was so eager to hurry up to them and tell them about how he'd been doing, his training and his growth - until I got close enough to hear that they were wondering what price he'd fetch.

The disdain also extends to the keepers, who tend to be even less-well paid than their counterparts in public zoos, and have fewer opportunities.  I remember my boss plopping down next to me on a bench one day and saying "Keepers are like tissues," he told me with no preamble  "You use them.  Then you get new ones."  With that he smiled at me and wandered off.

I've been following the giraffe drama out of Natural Bridge - the stay on the removal of the remaining three animals has been lifted.  A lot of the commentary from the zoo and its allies has been focused on the heaping abuse on the state, the courts, and government in general; a few folks have even claimed that they think Trump will swoop in and save them, though I doubt that it's made it across his portfolio at this time.  Some of the posters just went on all Q-Anon crazy, and I'm glad I don't have to deal with them, either in real life or online.

It marvels me that people who are drawn to the same basic life decision - wanting to spend their careers working with animals and share them with the world - can produce people with such different outlooks on just about everything - including the animals themselves and how they should be managed and cared for.