The first zoo I ever saw was the Providence Zoo, a small, traditional zoo in a park that I fell in love with. More accurately, I fell in love with Lucy, an elephant in the small and smelly animal house there.

Lucy died a few years, and her presence became controversial, a target of animal rights activists who accused the zoo of mistreating her with bullhooks, a charge the zoo vehemently denied.

But there was nothing controversial about Lucy when I fell in love with her and took the bus to the zoo every chance I could to feed her peanuts through the bars in her cages.

She was a giant, gentle soul, and I have loved zoos ever since, even as the good ones changed radically to try to liberate their wild animals and present them in more humane and appropriate environments.

The devolution of the animal rights movement into a wealthy hate group is a tragedy, as animals have never needed loving and rational advocates more. I am sad that I have learned to believe very little that they say at a time when animals have never need to have their rights protected more.

As animals vanish, one species after another, the movement has increasingly abandoned them, targeting instead the people who love, live, and work with them; they are much easier targets than the giant factory farms who torture and kill animals by the billions out of sight and consciousness.

Everywhere, the people who claim to support the rights of animals fight to remove animals from our lives, when they should be fighting for the biggest and best zoos in the world.

Because of their unthinking work, few of us will ever see an elephant again.

So many have already been slaughtered after being banned from the circuses that employed them for centuries.

I love what has happened to the Bronx Zoo, the largest zoo in America, and one of the largest urban zoos on the planet. The grounds are beautiful and meticulously maintained, the habitats are gorgeous and spacious, and everywhere there are warnings and lectures about the troubles animals face in our time.

Without zoos, most Americans would never get to see these remarkable creatures away from YouTube. Just ask any of the children walking on these paths if they want zoos to be in their lives.

It is a vibrant and enchanting experience to go to the Bronx Zoo, the first thing Maria and I saw on our walk-in where the Bisons, there were once tens of millions of them in the United States, now there are just a few thousand. We are a relentlessly cruel and oblivious species.

I loved seeing the big housing apartments looming over them. It set the scene perfect.

The zoo spans more than 250 acres, and sometimes apartment and office towers loom above the tundras and exhibits created for the animals. This is a fantastic dichotomy, this beautiful expanse park set amidst the Bronx, one of the most urban and densely populated cities in the country.

At the Bronx Zoo, you can walk for miles on shaded paths and marvel at the tall trees. The zoo is quiet, broken occasionally by the sound of sirens from the world beyond.

I love the mix of people – brown, white, yellow, black – that walk among the shaded trees from one exhibit to another. I love the different languages I  hear, the many different clothes and costumes I see.

There is something magical about an urban zoo like the Bronx Zoo, which has embraced animal conservation as a cause and theme. There, we see the world in which animals have vanished, and right in the middle, a world where they live and can be seen.

And it is a magical place for me and for Maria, we love to be together there and share our love and wonder in the animal world. I think they need an octopus exhibit, an Octopus House.

You can hear the Sea Lions yelling for their food a mile away. And eat sandwiches while Peacocks and their babies strut politely nearby, hoping for a crumb.

Nothing is more wonderful there than to see and hear the excitement of children as they see wild animals for the first time and grab their smartphones.

They shout and exclaim and photograph the animals, these images are so important for them. And they loved every minute at the zoo. Do we really want to take these animals away from them?

This mixing of cultures is what I most love about America; it is refreshing and nourishing to walk along with them. This potpourri of humanity is where I come from, where my roots are.

I walked these very paths with my grandmother and grandfather, both refugees themselves who were so grateful to be in America they would literally kiss the ground they walked on.

They were terrified of animals, they had a different meaning for them. My grandmother saw her brother pulled off a sled and killed by wolves in Russia. She never trusted them, not even at the Bronx Zoo.

Maria and I love to sit silently and watch animals – we watched the lions, sea lions, baboons, birds, red pandas, and especially, the snow leopard who was gracious enough to come and lie down right near the thick glass where we were standing.

Their environments seemed thoughtful, spacious, and carefully crafted. In a perfect world, no animal should live in a zoo, but in our society, this is the last chance to survive for so many.

And the only chance for many of us and our children to ever see them.

Two weeks ago, I met my granddaughter Robin there, and since then, I’ve joined the zoo and hope to meet here there many times.

It’s a perfect way for us to share collective experiences and get to know one another. Today, she called and blew me a kiss over Facetime. I’ll bet they’ll get up here fast enough when Zinnia comes, Emma has a big weak spot for Lab puppies.

The sequel to “Frozen,” the Disney movie, is coming out in November, and Robin wants me to take her to see it. That may be hard for me to resist.

I wish Lucy the elephant I loved so much as a child could have lived in the Bronx Zoo rather than in that small Elephant House in Providence. They wouldn’t let me feed her peanuts anymore, but she would love the space and the crowds walking past. She was a ham, I think, and loved her peanuts.

But she did her work on the little boy who loved her.  I have loved animals ever since I met here, and worked hard whenever I could to give them the lives they deserved.

I am so sorry the children who come behind me will never see an elephant like her.