Nature and Freedom

I am not the type who enjoys being up close and personal with other members of the animal kingdom other than my cat! However, I can definitely appreciate the majesty of the other species we share our planet with. I love seeing animals roaming in the areas they naturally inhabit.

I remember when I was about 9 years old and I went to a circus which had set up on the playing fields opposite my house. At the time, I loved watching circuses on TV so I was really excited. After the performance we could pay 5p and go to see the animals ‘backstage’. It was something that completely changed my approach to the rest of the animals we share so much with genetically speaking. This lovely lioness was in a cage barely longer than she was and it broke my heart. From that moment I hated circuses and everyone involved in them. I never went to, or watched, another circus and I would never allow my children to go. I know that by the time they were old enough to go circuses were no longer using animals, but as far as I was concerned, any circus still going was built on abject cruelty and shared guilt with their predecessors in the circus whose approach to animals, using whips and the brutal training was medieval in nature. I remember an episode of the children’s series Mr Benn involved people walking around and looking at sad animals in cages, but Mr Benn as the zookeeper managed to trick the visitors into the cages where they were locked in and stayed while being looked at by the animals! I was with Mr Benn 100% on that.

Animals should be free in their natural habitats. Unfortunately, the worst animal has destroyed so much of their old surroundings. Our cities demonise lovely birds like pigeons who flew messages for us in World War II and who are incredibly intelligent and loving creatures. We complain that they are in our surroundings but completely ignore the fact that we have displaced them, along with foxes and other creatures. We are driven by a sense of superiority, backed up by a verse in the bible that gives us dominion over everything else, and we have used that to cause havoc with nature, havoc that is ongoing and getting worse. The sooner we realise that we are simply one outlying branch of the animal kingdom and not some special creation the better it will be for all living things, but such is our arrogance I can’t see that revelation ever coming.

Whatever animals you love, you should try to see them in their natural surroundings, free, majestic and far more appealing as herds and flocks than human beings ever could be.