Better Off Dead?

Animal rights activists are all in a lather over the prospect of a baby polar bear being raised by humans and living in a zoo. Read about it here.

The poor creature was abandoned by his mother and the mean ole zoo keepers decided not to let it die. How terrible. As put in the CNN article:

"Animal rights activists argue that he should be given a lethal injection rather than brought up suffering the humiliation of being treated as a domestic pet."

So, I want to know something. How do they know that the bear will suffer humiliation? Have the captive bears been sending bear notes to the the animal rights folks saying that they feel humiliated? do we really know what makes a bear happy? I mean, we ourselves are genetically wired to be hunter/gatherers, but most of us, if given a choice, would rather not spend our days out in the elements. So how do we really know the polar bear will be miserable? The evidence overall is that bears bond well with human surrogate parents. No reason to think this baby polar bear will be different.

On a trip once to the Toronto zoo one time two of the polar bears were involved in a non stop wrestle and play fight. They seemed to be having a good time to me. Plus they got three squares a day (or the bear equivalent). Do we know that bears would rather have to spend all day hunting (and ripping apart other animals) than being fed. It may make them a little too sedentary and over weight (hey, like me!), but miserable and humiliated?

Animals respond differently to living in captivity. Many, if not most higher mammals seem to find some comfort and ease with having relationships with human beings along with fellow "inmates." Some seem to downright enjoy it. How do we know this bear will be miserable? We don't.

I love animals almost more than I can put into words. I am not overly sentimental or neurotic about it. But the almost universal affection I have for my fellow creatures is a deep part of my being. I am devoted to saving habitats for animals to live in in the wild. Zoos play an important function in helping human beings feel the need to save and preserve animal species and their habitats. They often play a role in staving off extinction. Yes there are some terrible zoos. But they are getting better and better. And do we REALLY know that a bear would rather be our floating on an ice sheet somewhere looking for a nice seal to eat rather then living in a zoo? I don't know if we know that.

I have run into the "life not worth living" argument all too often as regards human beings that we do understand fairly well. It is a bad way of thinking there; it is a bad way of thinking about animals.

I am glad they rescued the little bear, and are feeding it, and will raise it in captivity. It might just live a fairly happy bear life as far as we know, and it might just help a lot of human beings love bears all the more and want to help preserve their "natural" way of life.

And it might just be me, but looking at the picture I get the sense that the little bear enjoys its bottle. But what do I know about what bears enjoy.