New podcast: Journey To Boston, Search For An Octopus, A Fish Story.
I learned on my farm and also during my writing about the New York Carriage Horses how desperately important it is to learn something about the animals whose future on the earth we are responsible for.
To know them before we make fateful and arrogant decisions about them.
Well-meaning people who say the represent the rights of animals knew absolutely nothing about the horses and what they are really like and what they really need.
I knew little about the ocean worlds beyond the occasional book or article and when I finished my two rounds through the New England Aquarium yesterday, I learned a bit about how to care about what happens to these extraordinary creatures in this other world.
Maria started out focusing on the octopuses, but there was just so much to look at, we kept coming back. The aquarium was wonderful well designed, the fish were visible and exciting.
It was a gift to see these creatures, fish who see, fish who don’t, fish who hunt, fish who are hunted, fish who poison, fish who look like twigs. It was heartbreaking to learn how man of these creatures will be extinct in a few years.
That’s the point of going, when we see them, we care, when we don’t, they fade from our minds. Do all the good people who drove the elephants out of the circus know or care that these jobless elephants with no place to go are being slaughtered en masse in the name of protecting them.
After all these years of fighting, can a single animal rights activist name a single reservation or preserve that will take even one carriage horse when they are finally driven from New York?
The visit to the aquarium reminded me of the big lie: once these animals are taken from us, they will have safe and rich places to go for the rest of their lives. They can live in the wild.
Our children and grandchildren will never see an elephant apart from You Tube, we did this to them. They may never see a carriage horse again, if the animal rights movement gets its way.
I do not believe they will praise us for taking the animals away, I think they will hate us.
I left the aquarium with an even greater sensitivity to the urgent crisis of climate change. So many of the animals we saw are endangered, vanishing from our greedy and oblivious planet. I am beginning to think that humans will get what they deserve in future years, if there is a God, he will abandon them for what they have done to his creation, the earth.
We loved the aquarium, Maria and I spent six or seven hours looking at every exhibit on every floor. This was just what we needed, to get away for a day or so and see something different. Sunday was sure different.
We were mesmerized by the four-story coral reef with more than 1,000 kinds of fish. We were very drawn to the giant octopus who danced and slithered for us in this beautiful and mystical dance.
We came home slightly exhausted tonight, but decided to go ahead with our a podcast about the trip, just like we promised. We are eager to get back. You can hear the podcast here.
Jon and they are so intelligent which makes my heart break in a million pieces (Octopusses, squid) because they are intelligent they KNOW what is happening to them.
Amen about “returning animals to the wild” theorists. We recently went to Hawk Manor Falconry (in Lillington, NC) where we were able to get up close and personal with hawks, falcons and an owl. I learned so much about these magnificent birds, their habits, their hunting techniques, and how we as humans are affecting them. Chip Gentry, who runs the business, is a most passionate conservationist of these animals, and is involved in releasing birds back to the wild only who are capable of taking care of themselves. He has been accused of “snatching the birds from the wild” for his own amusement and financial gains. (again, knowledge of the integrity of people and the many, many laws involved here is key, many don’t know or care to research it) A woman attending a symposium of animals made scathing remarks (just out of earshot, but she wasn’t) saying how awful it was to keep these birds of prey, how sad for the birds, etc. Chip chased her through this venue, and challenged her ignorance, and invited her to come and actually SEE his presentation. His point was, be informed, actually find out what people are doing to preserve these animals, and stop looking at things through the eyes of ignorance, the VERY thing that you so expertly examined regarding the Carriage horses. (Chip did a TEDRaleigh talk in 2017, and it is apparent his love and concern for birds of prey)
I never like either/or debate. If the Carriage horses are being treated well that is the most important thing. They are working animals. As far as elephants being slaughtered. Shouldn’t the focus be on that and doing everything possible to help these animals. It is well documented that they were mistreated in many circuses and saying well let them continue in that situation so they don’t die seems wrong. Once again if it can be shown that they are well treated then let them stay but don’t replace them. The Ringling Bros. elephants went to a sanctuary and maybe the focus should be on finding more places to go. As far as taking the Carriage horses – if they are being mistreated there are certainly horse sanctuaries for them to go. Not all people who work to help animals are crazy or misguided. Please don’t paint us all with the same brush.
The people I met pursuing the carriages horses were, to a one, crazy or misguided. They lied, assaulted and fabricated worse than any politician I ever knew of. I am a person who has worked for years to help animals, I have rescue animals on the farm all over the place, sheep, donkeys, dogs, cats, even chickens. I don’t need to be told good people help animals. The people seeking to ban the carriage horses that I met are not good people and care nothing about the real needs of animals.
P.S. you are misinformed, 12 of the RIngling Bro elephants went to their sanctuary in Florida, they have no room for more, the others were sold off or were eventually killed. And if you saw the circuses some went do — I have — you might think quite differently about what happened to them. More than 200 elephants in Ringling Bros and other circuses were let go in the aftermath of the latest animal rights hysteria. The idea that they are all happy and fat in Florida is just a lie.
Great thought provoking podcast. Thank you!
Thank you for taking us along, on your journey to the aquarium, in Boston.
I found your conversation fascinating, and enjoyable to listen to.
The love, and interest, that you, and Maria, share for all animals, comes through in your voices.
There is an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee that takes elephants from circuses and zoos. Also orcas belong in the ocean.
They take very few elephants there Barbara, ask them how many they have rescued there, more than 200 have been sent to smaller, less regulated circuses in other countries where they are treated far worse than Ringling Brothers or been euthanized, they are enormously expensive to care for.The notion they will all go and live happy lives on sylvan preserves for more than $1,000 a day for the rest of their lives – 50 years or so – is an absurd fantasy created to soothe the consciences of people who condemned them to die without giving a thought to their fates.
Orcas definitely do not belong in in amusement parks or preserves either, but they are nothing like domesticated elephants who have worked with humans well for centuries. The fact that you don’t know the difference does no service to your argument.
Thank you Jon. Yes, You’re right. The sanctuary has only helped 28 elephants.
Barbara, thanks most, I suspect, were sick and old elephants. If you talk to elephant people rather than animal rights people, you will find that the circus elephants are working, domesticated animals now, they were powerfully attached to their handlers (and often slept with them in circuses) and a life standing around with nothing to do and no people or work, their function is mainly to eat and drop tons of manure, hardly amounts to a rescue it is rather a life sentence if boredom and neuroses – they always had stimulation and something to do, and very few were ever prove to be mistread, not at Ringling Bros. This is not humane, this is the very embodiment of inhumane. It is a socially sanctioned for of abuse, like locking dogs up in crates for years and patting ourselves on the back for being noble.