PETA Would Not Approve

            Ok, so we didn’t meet for a couple weeks after being so enthusiastic about meeting again soon. It’s the terrible, honest truth. But in any case, our schedules locked up finally on this evening at 8 sharp! When he arrived I was so excited that I started talking a little too quickly. Then I realized I didn’t allow him to warm up to the conversation, so I paused, regrouped, and we started over.

            This time we’re skipping to the end. This meeting ended with zoos. Not the pleasant kind where caged animals stolen from their natural habitat sleep and get stared at all day by children and adults. Not even the kind where the animals are kept in a semi-wild environment and visitors simply drive through. No, in China, they have drive-through zoos that give you live chickens to hang out of your window as you drive through. What, you ask? Live chickens? Yes, you read it correctly. Apparently when you arrive at this zoo (specifically the zoo in Shanghai) you can buy a chicken – a live chicken – before entering the wildlife area. When you enter the area you put the chicken out the window while holding on to its legs in some sort of way so that it stays on the side of the vehicle. During your time in the zoo, lions and tigers will chase your vehicle until finally the chicken is pawed down and the carnivore tears at its skin and feathers.

Gross, right? It took everything I had not to react more than I did, and react I did. How could I not? Not only did I find the thought of it completely disgusting, but incredibly cruel. I can imagine it from those poor poultry eyes. One day you get caught on a farm and taken to a new place where you can play with other chickens all day and there are plenty of animals nearby. These other animals are not necessarily ones that you interact with regularly or ever, but it’s nice knowing they are there. The only downside to life is that every day at random moments one of your compatriots is chosen from the coop. There is no way to stop his or her removal. There is no way to understand why he or she was removed. All you know is that he or she never returns. When you think about it, you are sad, but, in the end, your blissful life continues roughly the same as always. Until one day you are that random chicken, and at last you find out the truth about your friends’ disappearances. After removal, you are handed to an ordinary person referred to as a tourist. This tourist then sticks you out of the window of a moving vehicle and shuts the window to nearly closed. As the tourist steps on the gas, the wind on the sides of the vehicle becomes extremely strong. You wonder the reason for creating this specific torture. Then you see them, those animals you were so glad were nearby only moments before. The lions chase the vehicle until, at last, they paw at you, they rip your skin and body, and you expire.

That, friends, is the gruesome tale of the Shanghai Zoo. This is the reason I can never label this type of zoo as “pleasant.” There is nothing pleasant about it. The only description can be Chinese. This zoo represents the Chinese take on how it should be done, and so perhaps I won’t understand it. Perhaps, I’ll even disagree with it. But also, perhaps, I might learn something from this added information. And just maybe this will help me achieve a greater world view where behaviors like this may be in other cultures that aren’t in my own.