Toni wrote in message
thlink.net...

"Chuck Gadd" wrote in message
...

So you think that wild caught fish are automatically mistreated?



Knowing full well that you'll probably come back with 100 reasons I'm
wrong
g-
I believe that to interfere to the extent of physically removing a
creature
from its natural environment is the ultimate abuse. The percentage that
die
is unacceptable- how big is that pile of dead Cardinal Tetras in the sky?
Plus the trauma of being yanked from your home and being slapped into a
plastic bag?
Simply so they can live in a box in your home?
As humans can we really *be* that presumptuous?

I believe it is simply not our right to intrude on their lives.
I also don't believe in zoos, captive animals, or a hundred other abuses
our
present society condones.
I believe that "dominion over the animals" is not a license to redetermine
their fate, but a gentle edict to respect their right to exist as equal to
our own.

I believe that "animal viewing" exhibitions may have started innocently
enough as a way for common folk to see up close and personal all the
creatures that the explorers wrote home about, but that time is now past.
The concept went bad pretty early on IMO- when the first animal died.
We have the Discovery Channel now for viewing the wonders of the wild
kingdom.

I also might need to mention that I have worked in the pet
shop/circus/companion animal field for over 30 years and have seen more
than
my share of animals faring badly at the hand of man.
Toni

Then how do you feel about cattle being yanked from a pasture, jammed onto
trains or trucks, then crammed in stockyards at the slaughterhouse?
Zoos are no longer just a prison for captive animals. They are repositories
for animals that are almost lost in the wild. They maintain an
international registry of captive animals to allow breeding programs to
share the gene pool. Many even breed animals that are extremely rare, and
establish release programmes for the successes of their efforts.
I would imagine that there are less animals being treated inhumanely now
than in the past. Any animal at risk can look to man as the reason.
Not an easy problem to resolve, but at least the efforts are being made.

Jim