The ‘Dartmoor Lynx’ – Like All Animals – Just Wants to Be Free
Police are searching for a lynx loose on Dartmoor. Schools in Devon are being warned to keep children indoors as authorities look for the wild cat, who escaped from Dartmoor Zoological Park yesterday.
Just weeks after Harambe the gorilla was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo in the US and Juma the jaguar was killed at an Olympics photo op in Brazil, we are again faced with the obvious conclusion that wild animals do not belong in captivity.
Lynxes, like all animals – including humans – long to be free. Even the “best” zoos cannot begin to replicate their natural habitats or give them the autonomy to make choices about anything that’s important to them.
Animals in zoos are invariably stressed when they’re deprived of all control over their lives and will do whatever they can to escape. Whether this lynx is shot and killed or caught and returned to the zoo to spend the rest of his days in captivity, there is no good outcome for him.
It’s time we stopped treating our cousins in the animal kingdom as living exhibits, and we can start by making the choice today never again to visit a zoo or any other institution that incarcerates animals for human amusement.
